Why All Christians Must Repent Before Entering the Kingdom of God

By Donald Werner

Repent? For what? In this book we will begin with the Creation event, how and why YHVH God created us and why He allowed the serpent into the Garden to test Adam and Eve. The serpent promised Eve that if she would spurn YHVH’s Divine authority she could be her own god and she would suffer no eternal consequences. Now, just as Adam and Eve were tested in the Garden, all people have been, or will be tested. That test will ultimately determine whether or not we are fit for God’s Kingdom. Those who fail the test must repent to be fit.
I will show you that the very same deceptive lie used by the serpent to test Adam and Eve has come into the Christian Church through Paul’s epistles, to test us. And it has caused millions upon millions to be deceived, as Eve was, and to unwittingly becoming their own gods, spurning YHVH’s Divine authority and practice lawlessness by setting aside YHVH’s laws and commands. Jesus said, “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” (Revelation 12:9, 13:3). That's the same “deception” that deceived Eve, Jesus spoke about that deception in the Sermon in the Mount, and ‘all the world’ are the ‘many’ who are deceived on the broad way headed for destruction. To overcome that deception requires that we know what it is, where it comes from and then we must repent of the sins we did while we were deceived and follow those teachings of Jesus that the Church ignores. (I’ll tell you what they are).
Going from Genesis to the Book of the Revelation we will see how that 'Great Deception' has wreaked spiritual havoc within the Christian Church and deceived millions. The Book of the Revelation not only points out the problem, but it also gives us the solution as well – and we will study that in this book.
The Christian Church has failed on many accounts, and I will show you that it’s all part of God's plan to find those who are fit for His eternal kingdom. Read this book to learn about that and much more, you will be amazed and shocked by what you learn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312565579

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Copyright

Why All Christians Must Repent Before Entering the Kingdom of God

Copyright © 2023 Donald Werner. All rights reserved.

ISBN #: 978-1-312-56557-9

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.

Please note, with concerns of violating the Second Commandment, using God’s Sacred name (YHVH) in vain; God’s sacred name was removed from the printed Bibles and substituted with the title ‘the LORD’.  I have restored God’s sacred name of God, YHVH, back into the Scripture verses which I quote in this book.  I felt that was necessary to get the true understanding of the Scriptures.  Exodus 3:15, Moreover God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘YHVH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’."

THE PREFACE

Repent? Jesus said, ‘Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand’.  Yes, Jesus said that to the Jews who ‘practiced lawlessness’, and because of their lawlessness they were condemned and their worship was in vain (Mark 7:7-9).  Today all Christians need to hear Jesus’ call to repentance – because they too, by definition, ‘practice lawlessness’.  And Jesus said those who practiced lawlessness will be gathered at the end of time and cast into a fiery furnace (Matthew 13:41-42).  But, there is hope for all through true repentance.

What is it to truly repent? Repentance begins with an acknowledging that we did wrong.  Before we can truly feel the guilt, shame or godly sorrow that leads to repentance, if we know that we were under the jurisdiction of the law which we have violated.  However, if we are deceived into believing that we don’t need to keep YHVH’s law, we will never feel guilt, shame or godly sorrow for violating that law – and that means we will never repent.  If YHVH God truly expects us to keep His law, and we don’t, we are in big trouble, and being deceived will not be a valid excuse. 

2Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV), For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.  A simple worldly sorrow over sins doesn’t lead to salvation, so it produces death. True repentance includes sorrow, but it also includes a resolve to stop sinning and to start submitting to YHVH’s Divine authority.  True repentance involve a change in thought, character and behavior.

Jesus said that neither those who practice lawlessness, nor idolaters will enter the Kingdom of God.  And I know all Christians will say, ‘I don’t practice lawlessness, and even if I did, Jesus paid the price for my sins, and I’m certainly not an idolater’.  Do Christians practice lawlessness?  Within this book we will take a close look at those charges, and examine them according to the Scriptures.

What is it to practice lawlessness?  We all commit lawless acts, and if we truly repent of those sins we’re not practicing lawlessness.  Practicing lawlessness doesn’t mean a person is completely evil and sins every chance they get. Those who practice lawlessness have been deceived into rejecting or ignoring one or more of YHVH’s laws, so they will violate those law(s) at will and don’t even consider it to be a sin, and thus they will never repent – they may even be nice, kind and gentle church going people. 

To reject even one of YHVH’s laws and violate it is to spurn His Divine authority, and that greatly dishonors Him.  It’s like looking Him in the eye and defiantly and saying, ‘No, I won’t obey You’, and without true repentance, that is practicing lawlessness.  And if we won’t do as YHVH commanded, He is not our true God, and so, practicing lawlessness is also a form of idolatry.

And I understand that Paul told us no less than 36 times that we are not under God’s law, and we don’t have to keep it.  Why did he say that, and we have to ask, was he correct in saying that?  Jesus clearly told us that we are to worship YHVH alone (Matthew 4:10) and we are to keep YHVH’s ‘law and the Prophets’ until heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 5:18-19) and if Jesus is correct, we need to truly repent.  If Paul is correct we don’t need to repent.  Jesus and Paul can’t both be right – so, we must choose between them.  The Church has chosen Paul, whom do you choose?

Why did Paul tell us that we don’t need to keep YHVH’s ‘law and the Prophets’?  That I will share in this book, and it may surprise you.

Eve, and perhaps Adam, were deceived into practicing lawlessness.  And because they were so deceived, they didn’t understand that their violating of  YHVH’s command was wrong, so they didn’t repent, they couldn’t without knowledge of sin.  And so, they were both cast out of the Garden of Eden.  Could Christians be thus deceived by the same deceitful lie that deceived Eve?  You may be surprised, so keep reading and you will get the answer. 

End

THE INTRODUCTION

Here’s what we will cover in this book;

In Chapter 1 – We will read of the Creation event, how and why God created us and then allowed the serpent beast into the Garden of Eden to test Adam and Eve.  The serpent beast deceived Eve and got them to reject YHVH’s command, in doing that, the Serpent beast promised Eve that she could be her own god and there would be no eternal consequences for doing that spurning YHVH’s Divine authority. As Adam and Eve were tested, we too will be tested and that testing ultimately determines whether or not we are fit for God’s Kingdom.

I will show you that the very same deceptive lie has come into the Christian Churches through Paul’s epistles to test us.  And it has causes millions upon millions to be deceived into setting aside YHVH’s law and the Prophets, being their own gods and thus they are presumptuous sinners practicing lawlessness, who worship in vain. Jesus said, "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"  (Revelation 12:9, 13:3).

In Chapter 2 - We will read how the Parable of the Broad way and Narrow way perfectly reflects what is going on in the Christian Church today.  The deceived are on the Broad way headed for eternal destruction.  And Jesus tells us what that deception is, who is doing the deceiving and how we can avoid it. It’s the same deception the serpent beast used to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Why is Satan trying to deceive us?  It’s to test us.

In Chapter 3 – From the Book of the Revelation we will read God’s commentary on the Seven Churches, and it isn’t pretty. These Seven Pauline Christian churches, followed the teachings of Paul’s epistles, and have lost their way, being corrupted, compromising, idolatrous and lawless.  Then we read a compressed version of Christian Church history reduced to four horses: white horse, red horse, black horse and pale horse. 

Revelation Chapter 14 then tells us how to avoid that deception so we may be one of the ‘redeemed’.  There we also read of some special traits, beliefs and characteristics of the redeemed. And there we also discover the identity of the Great Harlot, her many daughters, the beast, his image and Babylon the Great, and we find that God’s solution to the deception is the ‘everlasting gospel’.

In Chapter 4 – we will learn from the Scriptures that God’s sacred name is YHVH (Yahoveh) and YHVH tell us he He is not a Trinity.  Jesus affirmed that (Matthew 4:10, Mark 12:28, Luke 4:8, and John 17:3) and YHVH affirmed that (Exodus 20:2-3, and many other verses).  And thus worshiping a trinity, or Jesus, is idolatry and the Scriptures tell us that no idolater will enter the Kingdom of God.  That is worshiping in vain.

In Chapter 5 – we will learn why Paul’s epistles teach lawlessness.  Paul was a Pharisee, and he taught what the Pharisees believed.  Jesus warned us about the teachings of the Pharisee (Matthew 16:12), calling them ‘lawless hypocrites’ (Matthew 23:28), yet the entire Christian Church, ‘all the world’, is following the teaching of a Pharisee named Paul, and they are deceived. Jesus said, "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"  (Revelation 12:9, 13:3).  All of this will all make perfect sense after reading this book. 

This book will reveal to you truths that you will never hear in a Christian Church or a Christian book, because these truths are not complementary to the Christian Church – but rather point out her errors caused by her rejecting some of Jesus’ words.  And I have no agenda other than to help people learn and grow, not in the Christian faith, not in their ‘faith in Jesus’, but rather, in the ‘faith of Jesus’.  You will be shocked and amazed why what you read in this book.

If you are a Christian, this book will compel you from the Scriptures to change your perceptions about the Christian Church, Jesus and YHVH God.  You will be blessed and become one of the Redeemed.

Donald Werner, [e-mail]

Chapter 1

THE BOOK OF GENESIS

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN THAT RELATES TO OUR WORSHIP AND SALVATION?

What do we need to know about what happened in the Garden of Eden as it relates to our worship and salvation?  When we understand what really happened in the Garden of Eden, we can be aware of what is happening today.

The beast, his image and his mark, as found in the Book of the Revelation, all find their roots in the Garden of Eden.  We have to understand that story to understand who the beast is, who the image of the beast is, what is their great deception and what is the mark of the beast, and then we will be able to identify the Babylon the Great which we are commanded to leave.

So, let’s take a good look at it…

ADAM AND EVE AND THE SERPENT BEAST

Genesis 3:1-5, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which YHVH God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?

2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

WHAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND BEGINS IN EDEN

To understand the Gospel, to understand Christianity, to understand Judaism, who the beast is, who his image is, to understand sin and man, to understand the beast’s deception, and to understand our need to keep God’s laws, we must to go back to the beginning, back to the Garden of Eden.  The story of man’s creation and fall begins in the Garden of Eden where mankind was tested and failed.  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 pass the test and be saved (redeemed).  So, we must begin with Our Creation.

OUR OWN CREATION

In the beginning God created the heaven and earth with a Garden of Eden.  It was there, in the Garden of Eden, on the sixth day 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, to reason and to make his own decisions.  Mankind has the ability to make decisions based on rational thinking, irrational thinking, emotions, sensory perceptions, feelings, influence of others, flip of a coin, based on one’s own experiences, etc.  So, 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 all pre-programmed for their own survival and the survival of the species, they are born with those built-in instincts.

And it has to be noted, that mankind also has a strong built in survival instinct as well, and because of that we are by nature, like the animals, self-centered, selfish beings and we, by our own human nature, watches out for ‘number one’ – as other animals do.  As it says in Ephesians 2 "and were by nature children of wrath and King David said in Psalm 51 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me".  And King David was not speaking about the sin of his mother, he was saying that he, and us, are conceived and born with a sinful nature – it’s in our DNA. 

However, we as humans, being in the image of God, have the ability to think and reason, and overcome that selfish instinct and even become unselfish people who give generously, and we can even become self-sacrificing beings.  The process by which we die to our ‘selfishness’ or ‘self-centeredness’ and are raised to a new character is sometimes referred to as being ‘born-again’.  And that’s what YHVH God calls us to do. He actually commands it if us and enables us to forsake our selfish natures and live unselfish lives, in compliance with His moral standards, laws and Commandments which we are to live by.  John 3:3, "Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. And he said, Then He said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Luke 9:23).  To ‘deny self’ is to ‘crucify’ our selfishness, our self-will (self-authority), i.e., humble ourselves, daily by submitting to YHVH’s authority. (Jesus spoke YHVH’s words with YHVH’s authority according to John 12:49, 14:10).

When we live according to our human nature, we are selfish and self-centered beings – putting self first – in that state we a sinful beings.  We, in that state, are our own gods, deciding for ourselves what is good and evil. We can overcome our natural selfish instincts and live unselfishly by putting God and others first, but it is unnatural for us to do so.  But when we do that as a lifestyle we are reflecting the nature and character of God.  Our lifetime goal is overcome ‘self’, or selfishness daily, and to become more like God – instead of being our own gods.  Keeping the Commandments of God will help us overcome selfishness. 

While we can be more like God, we do have a tendency to slip back into our self-centered survival mode – from which we must daily struggle, and repent to overcome.  We may hunger and thirst for righteousness, and seek it, but we will never fully achieving it, yet God gives us credit for our honest and diligent efforts (Matthew 5:6).

WHY WERE WE CREATED?

We were created in God’s image, but why were we created?  Mankind was created with a purpose, and that purpose, according to the Scriptures, is to honor YHVH God with our love, worship, giving Him glory, and praising YHVH God, our Maker (Isaiah 43:7, 43:21, Exodus 20:2-3, Psalm 95:6, 150:6, Deuteronomy 6:5). 

YHVH God is planning on populating His future eternal kingdom, i.e., the new heavens and the new earth, with people who love, serve and worship Him (Isaiah 66:22-23, Zechariah 14:22).  His kingdom will be populated with those who, by their own free will, are willing to submit to YHVH’s Divine authority while they are yet on this ‘old’ earth.  YHVH tells us that those who transgress His laws and commands, i.e., will not submit to His Divine authority, will be dead corpses on the face of the earth (Isaiah 66:24, Malachi 4:3).  So, to love, serve, obey and worship YHVH God we must, by our free wills, overcome our selfish natures, demote our own authority and submit to His Divine authority. 

No king would want people in his kingdom that will not submit to his