MANY RELIGIONS IN ONE HEAVEN – 30 APRIL 2016
May the Sabbath day be a blessing to the holy multitude. Today's sermon is entitled "Many religions in one heaven."
1 Corinthians 13:1-13:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understanding all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind, charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never failed, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease, whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophecy in part.
But when that is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, chariaty; but the greatest of these three is charity."
This Apostle Paul's writing is known almost by all believers, but we are in doubt as to whether those who read it understand its content. In Zulu Bible, which many people read, the name "charity" has been translated to "uthando", in English which means " love". With this translation it becomes easy for the reader to associate this writing with William Shakespeare's poem about love.
But in the King James version, from where the Zulu Bible is translated, the word "uthando" is "charity". This translation from charity to "uthando" may make people understand not what was intended by the Apostle. We feel the translation of "charity" to "ububele" is closer than "uthando." The word "ububele" means " tender feeling to help those who are needy."
There is much that Apostle Paul has said as he decribes charity; he says charity is kind, charity does not envy, does not boast about itself and is not proud of itself; charity does not behave itself badly, does not seek her own thing, is not easily provoked, does not do evil, believes everything and endures everything etc. Lastly Apotle Paul says there stands three things, faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of the three is charity.
It is however not clear how charity is greater than faith. Faith is believing in God in many ways, of which charity is an element of such ways; it is therefore not unclear just how charity becomes greater than faith.
At the end we find that the Apostle speaks strongly about something he calls charity or love, but which is not clear what it is, because its characters or attributes do not in many ways fit what he is talking about.
We do not know that if you have charity you believe everything, you endue everything; for it means that if you do not believe everything, you do not endue everything, you have no charity. That kind of attributes to charity are unknown.
What I like from Jesus is that whenever he talked in parables he would fully explain such parables. Unfortunately Apostle's talk is nicely poetic, however other than explanation about speaking with tongues and prophecy, explanation about this writing is left to us. It is therefore easy that we find ourselves saying what he never intended to convey to us.
If we were to think that it was Jesus who was talking, it is likely that he would be talking about TRUE OR PERFECT FAITH. He would say, "Though I speak wih tongues of men and of angels and have not TRUE FAITH, I am become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understanding all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not TRUE FAITH, I am nothing.
Jesus would say "True faith does not envy, is not boastful, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not easily angered, IT IS NOT SELF-SEEKING does not behave itself badly, is not easily provoked; true faith does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
The Apostle says charity does not fail or cease, but to our knowledge charity does fail or cease, for there are many people who become charitable at some stage and immediately they are no longer believers they cease to be charitable.
All elements of faith, of which charity is one of them, do cease, depending on what one wants in that faith. One can be so deligent in being charitable, but later he fails to do all he used to do. We therefore do not know which charity the Apostle is talking about which does not cease. Jesus would likely talk about true faith which is to keep Go's laws.
In Mathew 5:17-19 Jesus says:
" Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, UNTIL HEAVEN AND EARTH DISAPPEAR, NOT THENSMALLEST LEETER, NOT THE LIST STROKENOF A PEN WILL, BY ANY MEANS DISPPEAR FROMNTHE LAW UNTILL EVERYTHING ISNACCOMPLISHED."
What is the purpose of the Law of God? It is to direct God's true faith. True faith does not fail, does not cease, does not pass, for it is made of the Law of God. True faith is made of the Law of God which He left with Moses and the Prophets.
Jesus further says:
"Anyone who breaks the least of one of these Commandments and teaches the same, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commandments, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
What therefore, according to Jesus Christ's teachings, does not cease or fail is the TRUE FAITH which is made out of God's Commandmentss. Apostle Paul says that charity is not Self-CENTRED, but Jesus would say True faith is not SELF-CENTRED, but it holistically seek for the heavenly kingdom. This is the gist of the whole sermon; it is about TRUE FAITH WHICH IS NOT SELF-CENTRED but which seeks for the elevation of the heavenly kindom.
What is the difference between ordinary faith and TRUE FAITH? Ordinary faith is faith found amongs all believers making them join and become a member of a particular church and work towards elevating, defending, or propagating it. However, true faith means joining any church or religion, but working towards elevating Jehovah and keeping His commandments.
A believer with true faith knows the difference between working for your church and working for God. Religions or churches in their religious practices folow the laws of their churches whilst true faith practice religion in accordance with the laws of God.
Many religions in their practise worship God by praising their leaders more then God Himself, but true faith in its practice praises God and follow the commandments of God in their worship.
What is more important in each religion is the leader of the church or religion. All church members fight to defend their churches, but in true religion the believer fights to defend the greatness of God irrespective of the church or faith from which he is in.
This is the most important teaching I received from the angel, which makes me quote Apostle Paul when he says:
" When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I was a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
All believers under God's faith in many instances do not actually worship God but worship their leaders more then they worship God. This situation become such that even if a believer is sincerely religious, but fails to undestand what he or she wants to archieve in his or her faith.
The title of this sermon is," Many religions in one heaven." What does that mean? It means that in one kingdom of God there are many religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, ubuNazaretha and or other religions. In spite of the fact that all these religions are under one faith of God, but theey drastically differ in their beliefs and practices.
We do not know whether God's faith was not clear, or we simply started our religions in the name of God's faith. The most important teaching I received from the angel is to make a difference between being a believer of your faith or church and a believer in the kingdom of heaven.
We are all under the kingdom of heaven, in the same manner as we all in South Africa are under the South African Goverment. The kingdom of heaven has her Constitution which governs the divine, in the same manner as we have our Constitution which governs us.
In order to enter heaven you have to start here on earth to be governed by the Divine Laws. Jesus prayed that the heavenly kingdom be on earth in the same manner as it is in heaven, and the Commandments of God be kept here on earth in the same manner as they are kept in heaven.
The main question is that since we do not all similarily follow the Divine Laws, would that mean that we have separate heavens, the heaven of the Jews, of Christians, of Moslems and of amaNazaretha? It is not so, the problem is that we believe in our religions, churches and our leaders more than we believe in Jehovah and in keeping His Divine Laws.
Many a time when I speak about the angel I am confronted with questions like,"What does the angel say about Jesus," or because amaNazaretha have separate leaders, one asking," what does the angel say about a particular leader?"
These questons are caused by the fact that many believers believe in their churches more than believing in God and His commadents. That is why they are much concerned about the status of their leaders in heaven than being worried about the heavely commandments which will control their lives here on earth and in heaven.
The angel does not teach us anything about the status of Jesus Christ or Shembe in heaven, but all the time She teaches us about their teachings as to how we should worship God in following His Commandments.
All faiths under the religion of God should be engaged in teaching and worshipping Jehovah above all other things. To be religious is not for the churches or for the leaders of the church, nor is it for prophets or the heavely Messengers, but to be religious is of your own benefit, it is of your own life here on earth and in heaven. In faith one has to ask oneself as to whether he is in line with God's way of life, whether he will enter heaven.
The angel always observes what each person or each church leader teaches his followers about the commandments of God.
Last year, in 2015 the church leader of eBuhleni, uNyazi, in his preaching stated that sex between people of same sex is religiously forbidden, and that God said that through our transgressions God does stop rain. The following day this sermon was in some papers and uNyazi being blamed and threatened with legal actions for what he preached.
Before I saw the paper, I saw this angel being inside my house, looking angry and She asked whether I have seen what is written in the paper about uNyazi?
The angel then said," Go and rebut this report, for it is in the commandment of God that people of the same sex are not allowed to love each other and that it is God who said that through our transgressions He will stop the rain.
If you do not support uNyazi in what he is saying, you will be counted with the enemies of ubuNazaretha who want to undermine the Laws of Jehovah." In this the angel was not talking about the status of uNyazi, but about the sermon of uNyazi which was the teachings about the Laws of God.
When we are grown up in terms of true religious matters, we shall know what God wants from each person; we will be able through our divine dedication whether we are fit for heaven; we will understand the difference between faith based on establishing your own church and faith based on working for the kingdom of God.
There will come a time when there will be a BOOK WHICH TEACHES ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH. This book will be compiled and edited by scholars of different religions but full of the Spirit of God and true faith. This BIBLE WILL CONTAIN THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, not classified under any religion or church.
This book will contain the Laws of Moses, the teachings of the Prophets and ofJesus Christ; the teachings of Prophet Mahomed and the teachings of the Prophet Isaiah Shembe. The writings of all these men of God will be teaching us what they were sent to tell us about the heavenly kingdom and how we should worship God in order to see the kingdom of heaven.
May the Lord bless His Word.
Sermon By:
Rev M.P. Mpanza
revmpanza@nazarites.org.za
0712198223 (WhatsApp)
May the Sabbath day be a blessing to the holy multitude. Today's sermon is entitled "Many religions in one heaven."
1 Corinthians 13:1-13:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understanding all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind, charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never failed, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease, whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophecy in part.
But when that is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, chariaty; but the greatest of these three is charity."
This Apostle Paul's writing is known almost by all believers, but we are in doubt as to whether those who read it understand its content. In Zulu Bible, which many people read, the name "charity" has been translated to "uthando", in English which means " love". With this translation it becomes easy for the reader to associate this writing with William Shakespeare's poem about love.
But in the King James version, from where the Zulu Bible is translated, the word "uthando" is "charity". This translation from charity to "uthando" may make people understand not what was intended by the Apostle. We feel the translation of "charity" to "ububele" is closer than "uthando." The word "ububele" means " tender feeling to help those who are needy."
There is much that Apostle Paul has said as he decribes charity; he says charity is kind, charity does not envy, does not boast about itself and is not proud of itself; charity does not behave itself badly, does not seek her own thing, is not easily provoked, does not do evil, believes everything and endures everything etc. Lastly Apotle Paul says there stands three things, faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of the three is charity.
It is however not clear how charity is greater than faith. Faith is believing in God in many ways, of which charity is an element of such ways; it is therefore not unclear just how charity becomes greater than faith.
At the end we find that the Apostle speaks strongly about something he calls charity or love, but which is not clear what it is, because its characters or attributes do not in many ways fit what he is talking about.
We do not know that if you have charity you believe everything, you endue everything; for it means that if you do not believe everything, you do not endue everything, you have no charity. That kind of attributes to charity are unknown.
What I like from Jesus is that whenever he talked in parables he would fully explain such parables. Unfortunately Apostle's talk is nicely poetic, however other than explanation about speaking with tongues and prophecy, explanation about this writing is left to us. It is therefore easy that we find ourselves saying what he never intended to convey to us.
If we were to think that it was Jesus who was talking, it is likely that he would be talking about TRUE OR PERFECT FAITH. He would say, "Though I speak wih tongues of men and of angels and have not TRUE FAITH, I am become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understanding all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not TRUE FAITH, I am nothing.
Jesus would say "True faith does not envy, is not boastful, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not easily angered, IT IS NOT SELF-SEEKING does not behave itself badly, is not easily provoked; true faith does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
The Apostle says charity does not fail or cease, but to our knowledge charity does fail or cease, for there are many people who become charitable at some stage and immediately they are no longer believers they cease to be charitable.
All elements of faith, of which charity is one of them, do cease, depending on what one wants in that faith. One can be so deligent in being charitable, but later he fails to do all he used to do. We therefore do not know which charity the Apostle is talking about which does not cease. Jesus would likely talk about true faith which is to keep Go's laws.
In Mathew 5:17-19 Jesus says:
" Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, UNTIL HEAVEN AND EARTH DISAPPEAR, NOT THENSMALLEST LEETER, NOT THE LIST STROKENOF A PEN WILL, BY ANY MEANS DISPPEAR FROMNTHE LAW UNTILL EVERYTHING ISNACCOMPLISHED."
What is the purpose of the Law of God? It is to direct God's true faith. True faith does not fail, does not cease, does not pass, for it is made of the Law of God. True faith is made of the Law of God which He left with Moses and the Prophets.
Jesus further says:
"Anyone who breaks the least of one of these Commandments and teaches the same, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commandments, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
What therefore, according to Jesus Christ's teachings, does not cease or fail is the TRUE FAITH which is made out of God's Commandmentss. Apostle Paul says that charity is not Self-CENTRED, but Jesus would say True faith is not SELF-CENTRED, but it holistically seek for the heavenly kingdom. This is the gist of the whole sermon; it is about TRUE FAITH WHICH IS NOT SELF-CENTRED but which seeks for the elevation of the heavenly kindom.
What is the difference between ordinary faith and TRUE FAITH? Ordinary faith is faith found amongs all believers making them join and become a member of a particular church and work towards elevating, defending, or propagating it. However, true faith means joining any church or religion, but working towards elevating Jehovah and keeping His commandments.
A believer with true faith knows the difference between working for your church and working for God. Religions or churches in their religious practices folow the laws of their churches whilst true faith practice religion in accordance with the laws of God.
Many religions in their practise worship God by praising their leaders more then God Himself, but true faith in its practice praises God and follow the commandments of God in their worship.
What is more important in each religion is the leader of the church or religion. All church members fight to defend their churches, but in true religion the believer fights to defend the greatness of God irrespective of the church or faith from which he is in.
This is the most important teaching I received from the angel, which makes me quote Apostle Paul when he says:
" When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I was a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
All believers under God's faith in many instances do not actually worship God but worship their leaders more then they worship God. This situation become such that even if a believer is sincerely religious, but fails to undestand what he or she wants to archieve in his or her faith.
The title of this sermon is," Many religions in one heaven." What does that mean? It means that in one kingdom of God there are many religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, ubuNazaretha and or other religions. In spite of the fact that all these religions are under one faith of God, but theey drastically differ in their beliefs and practices.
We do not know whether God's faith was not clear, or we simply started our religions in the name of God's faith. The most important teaching I received from the angel is to make a difference between being a believer of your faith or church and a believer in the kingdom of heaven.
We are all under the kingdom of heaven, in the same manner as we all in South Africa are under the South African Goverment. The kingdom of heaven has her Constitution which governs the divine, in the same manner as we have our Constitution which governs us.
In order to enter heaven you have to start here on earth to be governed by the Divine Laws. Jesus prayed that the heavenly kingdom be on earth in the same manner as it is in heaven, and the Commandments of God be kept here on earth in the same manner as they are kept in heaven.
The main question is that since we do not all similarily follow the Divine Laws, would that mean that we have separate heavens, the heaven of the Jews, of Christians, of Moslems and of amaNazaretha? It is not so, the problem is that we believe in our religions, churches and our leaders more than we believe in Jehovah and in keeping His Divine Laws.
Many a time when I speak about the angel I am confronted with questions like,"What does the angel say about Jesus," or because amaNazaretha have separate leaders, one asking," what does the angel say about a particular leader?"
These questons are caused by the fact that many believers believe in their churches more than believing in God and His commadents. That is why they are much concerned about the status of their leaders in heaven than being worried about the heavely commandments which will control their lives here on earth and in heaven.
The angel does not teach us anything about the status of Jesus Christ or Shembe in heaven, but all the time She teaches us about their teachings as to how we should worship God in following His Commandments.
All faiths under the religion of God should be engaged in teaching and worshipping Jehovah above all other things. To be religious is not for the churches or for the leaders of the church, nor is it for prophets or the heavely Messengers, but to be religious is of your own benefit, it is of your own life here on earth and in heaven. In faith one has to ask oneself as to whether he is in line with God's way of life, whether he will enter heaven.
The angel always observes what each person or each church leader teaches his followers about the commandments of God.
Last year, in 2015 the church leader of eBuhleni, uNyazi, in his preaching stated that sex between people of same sex is religiously forbidden, and that God said that through our transgressions God does stop rain. The following day this sermon was in some papers and uNyazi being blamed and threatened with legal actions for what he preached.
Before I saw the paper, I saw this angel being inside my house, looking angry and She asked whether I have seen what is written in the paper about uNyazi?
The angel then said," Go and rebut this report, for it is in the commandment of God that people of the same sex are not allowed to love each other and that it is God who said that through our transgressions He will stop the rain.
If you do not support uNyazi in what he is saying, you will be counted with the enemies of ubuNazaretha who want to undermine the Laws of Jehovah." In this the angel was not talking about the status of uNyazi, but about the sermon of uNyazi which was the teachings about the Laws of God.
When we are grown up in terms of true religious matters, we shall know what God wants from each person; we will be able through our divine dedication whether we are fit for heaven; we will understand the difference between faith based on establishing your own church and faith based on working for the kingdom of God.
There will come a time when there will be a BOOK WHICH TEACHES ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH. This book will be compiled and edited by scholars of different religions but full of the Spirit of God and true faith. This BIBLE WILL CONTAIN THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, not classified under any religion or church.
This book will contain the Laws of Moses, the teachings of the Prophets and ofJesus Christ; the teachings of Prophet Mahomed and the teachings of the Prophet Isaiah Shembe. The writings of all these men of God will be teaching us what they were sent to tell us about the heavenly kingdom and how we should worship God in order to see the kingdom of heaven.
May the Lord bless His Word.
Sermon By:
Rev M.P. Mpanza
revmpanza@nazarites.org.za
0712198223 (WhatsApp)
