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I became a "messiah" at 1 PM, September 11, 1958, by an isolated lake outside of Brownwood, Texas. I was nineteen years old and newly married. Today, entering my sixties, I look back on this important event in my life with mixed emotions: a degree of shame mixed with part unimaginable joy. The former because of what I was to finally learn as I approached sixty. The later, because, at long last, through much agony, I believe I have finally attained what that experience along that quiet lake 40 years ago was intended to accomplish.
This is first a story of confessions...
Jesus Christ the Nazarene spoke with love to his private disciples on that Passover night: "If you love me, you will observe my commandments. you are my friends if you do what I am commanding you...
Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus of Nazareth made the claim, ‘I am the Truth.’ The Nazarene’s dearest disciple wrote of his Master, ‘The Truth came to be through Jesus Christ.’ [See Jn 1.17] His greatest missionary preached, ‘Truth is in Jesus.’ [Ephesians (Ep) 4.21] Today one third of the earth’s population, nearly two billion persons, lay claim to a form of belief in this carpenter from the Middle East. However, few actually have read his teachings as recorded in what are called the Gospels. [Matthew, Mark, Luke, John] Fewer still have made any serious study of what Jesus the Nazarene taught. This manuscript will outline and discuss The Seven Principles as the ‘primary doctrine of the Christ’ using the Lord’s Prayer as a format and outline...
The Nazarene Principles. You could also download the Adobe Acrobat Version (669 KB)
This is not a manual of rules or orders save in those places where "the Lord’s commandment" or the inspired writer’s directives are clear and specific. The "manual of discipline" is prepared for those who wish to commit to the association of Christians called the Nazarene Saints or Nazarene Community of Christian Saints and who now identify themselves as such.
Jesus the Nazarene taught he had come to build his own Congregation...
The following will occur during or after the 21st century or Jesus Christ the Nazarene was a false prophet: ‘The sun will be darkened. The moon will turn blood-red. The asteroids of heaven will fall to earth. Disgusting sores will come upon humans. The sea will turn to blood. Drinking water will turn to blood. Humans will be scorched by the sun’s fierce heat. And the Seventh Angel will empty his bowl into the air and a great voice will boom from the Celestial Temple: "THE END HAS COME!" Then will occur flashes of lightning, great thunder, and a violent earthquake without parallel since humanity came to be. The cities of the earth will collapse.’
These words are claimed to be those of Jesus Christ the Nazarene as he made it known by an angel to his dearest disciple John near the end of the First Century. These words are recorded in what has come to be called Revelation or the Apocalypse....
It is safe to say that virtually everyone has given some thought to death or life after death. Death is the one absolute all must agree will someday befall each one. There has never been a culture on earth that did not hold to some belief in life after death. A rejection of the idea of the soul surviving the death of the body is very new. Those few who believe in a godless universe feel sure that death ends all existence and, therefore, any possibility of continued life elsewhere.
By far the majority of people today believe in a life beyond the grave. On what do they base this idea?...
Where are the Dead: According to the Bible .
Perhaps the most defining difference between all Christians and the ABS and the WatchTower view of the Lord’s return is the manner of his arrival and presence. The ABS belief is that he arrived invisibly in 1874 (Watchtower in 1914) and has been carrying on the work of tearing down the world systems and preparing the last members of his bride. The pivotal point of this contention is the Greek word parousia. It is well known that this word in its simplistic sense means ‘presence.’...
Is Jesus Present or yet to come? .
