Salvation According to Jesus

By Donald Werner

YHVH God is timeless and He doesn’t change. And YHVH God’s plan for our salvation hasn’t changed either, His plan is one cohesive message beginning in the Book of Genesis all they through the Book of the Revelation. God’s salvation plan is the same today as it was in the Garden of Eden. That timeless message is woven throughout the Scriptures.
Yet, there is another message woven throughout the Scriptures, and that is the deceptive message of the serpent beast. The serpent beast is in competition with YHVH God to take our allegiance and worship away from YHVH God, and he attempts that by deception. Satan is quite successful; Revelation 13:3, “And all the world marveled and followed the beast.” Nearly the whole world is deceived.
It was in the Garden of Eden that YHVH God first started testing people for their fitness to enter His eternal kingdom and that testing continues with us to this day. As in the Garden of Eden, YHVH God is testing all individuals to see if they are fit for His eternal kingdom of Heaven, and according to Jesus, only a few will pass the test and most Christians will fail. Only a few will pass their tests because many are deceived and thus, they will be found unfit for the Kingdom of God.
This book will teach about our testing going on, the temptation coming from the church and the serpent's deception to trip us up, so we fail the test. This is a must read for Christians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781387576685

Book preview

Copyright

Salvation According to Jesus

Copyright © 2022 Donald Werner. All rights reserved.

ISBN #: 978-1-387-57668-5

Published by Donald Werner

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  All Scriptures, unless otherwise marked are from the NKJV.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version® ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 

Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

All scripture emphases, bolding, underlining, italics and parenthetical notes are mine.  I also restored God’s Divine Name, YHVH, back into the Scriptures from where the translators had removed it and substituted ‘the LORD’.

THE PREFACE

YHVH God is seeking and testing people for His future eternal kingdom.  The testing will determine if people are fit for His kingdom. Those who are fit for God’s kingdom will be redeemed from the earth (Revelation 14:1-3).  That is the meaning and the purpose of salvation.

And I realize that many people will read these first few sentences and say, ‘I don’t need to be tested, I’m already saved’.  And then they will say, ‘I’m Christian, I believe in Jesus, I gave my heart to Jesus, I said the sinner’s prayer, I’m baptized, I’m a good person, I’m a priest, I’m a pastor, I’m one of God chosen people, etc.. Often the churches will point them to John 3:16 and assure them that they are saved – if they ‘believe in Jesus’. The Bible, Old Testament, and the New Testament, repeatedly tells us that we must be faithful until death to be saved.  Jesus tells us in the Parable of the Two Ways, that many Christians will come to the gates of heaven expecting to get in, but they will be turned away, even though       they believed Jesus to be their Lord (Matthew 7:22).  They went through life, on the broad way, with a false sense of salvation. They were rejected because they failed God’s final test for them.  We will discuss in this book what that test was.

God will only let people into His kingdom who honor, love, worship Him, and that means submitting to His divine authority.  A misunderstanding of John 3:16 gives people a false sense of salvation.  God isn’t looking for people who know the facts about Jesus, but rather He is looking for ‘godly’ characters to populate His future kingdom.

YHVH God gives us the direction to His eternal kingdom, points out the way to get there, gives us instructions, warns us of stumbling blocks along the narrow way, and then sends us on that way.  However, He knows that we will run into temptations and deceptive false prophets along the way, so God sends us His Prophets to help us on our way. However, many people fall victim to Satan’s deceptions.

While we are all being tested it’s how we do on their final test of this life will determine if we are fit for God’s kingdom according to Ezekiel 18:24. So don’t despair if you feel you have failed, and don’t be overly proud if you feel that you have passed, your testing is not over yet. 

Keep reading to learn how we are being tested today and what God’s final test is and learn how to pass it.

Don

INTRODUCTION

YHVH God is timeless and He doesn’t change.  And YHVH God’s plan for our salvation hasn’t changed either. His plan is one cohesive message beginning in the Book of Genesis all they through the Book of the Revelation. God’s salvation plan is the same today as it was in the Garden of Eden.  That timeless message is woven throughout the Scriptures.

Yet, there is another message woven throughout the Scriptures, and that is the deceptive message of the serpent beast.  The serpent beast is in competition with YHVH God to take our allegiance and worship away from YHVH God, and he attempts that by deception.  Satan is quite successful; Revelation 12:9-13:3, So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him….. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.  Nearly the whole world is deceived.

It was in the Garden of Eden that YHVH God first started testing people for their fitness to enter His eternal kingdom. Today, as in the Garden of Eden, YHVH God (Yahoveh) is testing all individuals to see if they are fit for His kingdom, the kingdom of Heaven, and according to Jesus, only a few will pass the test. Only a few will pass their tests because many are deceived and thus behave in a manner that makes them not fit for the Kingdom of God. There is a certain type of person that will God allow in His kingdom and there are certain types that He will not allow in. 

The testing began in the Garden of Eden, and it continues up to this very day, we read about it from Genesis through the Book of the Revelation.  All people will be tested in the exactly same way – we actually have the same test that Adam and Eve had. 

While we read in Matthew 7:13-14 that ‘many’ are deceived and failing God’s tests and only a ‘few’ are passing. Those Christians on the broad way headed for destruction while singing Christian hymns on the way. They are on the broad way because they are failing God’s tests. But they are not without hope, for true repentance we move them from the broad way leading to eternal destruction to the narrow way leading to eternal life.  We read in the Book of the Revelation that some ‘overcome’ their deception and end up walking on the sea of glass (Revelation 15:2).

And we tend to believe that our religion will help us to learn of God’s requirements and help us pass the tests, but unfortunately just the opposite is true.  Most people are deceived by the messages taught and preached in their Christian Church.

According to Deuteronomy 18:18-19, Acts 2:33, 7:37 Jesus was YHVH’s anointed prophet (i.e., Christ or Messiah) and he spoke YHVH’s words with YHVH’s authority (John 12:49, 14:10).  So, it’s Jesus we must listen to and we must obey his words as though they are YHVH’s words speaken with a thundering voice from the clouds of heaven.  And if Jesus said he is to be our only teacher (Matthew 23:10), and he’s going to judge us according to how well we kept his word (John 12:47-49), then we better listen to, and heed his words, and discard any words that are not in total agreement with his words. 

So follow along and I will share Jesus’ words with you and prepare you to pass the test you weren’t even aware of, so that you may be found fit for His Kingdom.  But, be forewarned, that will take you off the easy broad way and place you on the narrow hard way.

Don Werner

Chapter 1 – The Garden of Eden

WHAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND BEGINS IN EDEN

To understand the Gospel, to understand Christianity, to understand Judaism, to understand sin and man, to understand the beast’s deception, and to understand our need to keep God’s laws, we always have to go back to the beginning, back to the Garden of Eden.  The story of man’s fall and man’s woes begins in the Garden of Eden.  When we understand that story we will have an understanding of mankind’s lost condition today, and the reason why God is testing us and what mankind must do to be saved.

OUR CREATION

It was there, in the Garden of Eden, that God created man and woman in His own image (Genesis 1:27). Being in God’s own image means that mankind was created with the ability to think, reason and make his own decisions.  Mankind has the ability to make decisions based on rational thinking, irrational thinking, emotions, sensory perceptions, feelings, or based on one’s own experiences.  Mankind has the freedom and the ability to make logical decisions, illogical decisions, good decisions or bad decisions. In other words, mankind has free will.  No other animal species has that type of free will, for animals are pre-programmed for survival, with built-in instincts.

And it has to be noted, that mankind also has a strong survival instinct, and because of that we are by nature self-centered, selfish beings and we, by nature, watch out for number one.  However, we as humans, by our thinking and reasoning process, have the ability to overcome that selfish instinct and become unselfish giving people and even self-sacrificial beings.  And that is what YHVH God calls us to do, and He actually commands it with His moral standards and by the laws and Commandments that we are to live by.

When we live according to our nature, we are selfish and self-centered beings – putting self first.  To overcome our natural selfish instincts and live unselfishly by putting others first is unnatural for us, it is supernatural act and we are then reflecting the nature and character of God.  Our goal is overcome ‘self’, or selfishness and to then be like God.

WHY WERE WE CREATED?

Why were we created?  Mankind was created with a purpose, and that purpose, according to the Scriptures, is to eternally love, worship, give glory, and