Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Holy Spirit Controversy: Discerning if the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person


CONTENTS
Chapter 1:  The Holy Spirit and the Gospel

Chapter 2: The Holy Spirit and Jehovah’s Witnesses

Chapter 3:  The Holy Spirit and Biblical Evidence

Chapter 4:  The Holy Spirit and Cayce’s View of Him

Chapter 5:  The Holy Spirit and the Christadelphians

Chapter 6:  The Holy Spirit and the Mormons

Chapter 7:  The Holy Spirit and the Church Universal and Triumphant

Chapter 8:  The Holy Spirit and A Course in Miracles

Chapter 9:  The Holy Spirit and Eckankar

Chapter 10:  The Holy Spirit and the Children of God

Chapter 11:  The Holy Spirit and Freemasonry

Chapter 12:  The Holy Spirit and the Mind Science Groups

Chapter 13:  The Holy Spirit and the Reorganized Mormons

Chapter 14:  The Holy Spirit and Rosicrusianism

Chapter 15:  The Holy Spirit and Unification Church

Chapter 16:  The Holy Spirit and the United Pentecostal Church

Chapter 17:  The Holy Spirit and the Urantia Foundation

Chapter 18:  The Holy Spirit and The Way International

Chapter 19:  The Holy Spirit and the false Virgin Mary Cult

Chapter 20:  The Holy Spirit of Christmas Time

Chapter 1:  The Holy Spirit and the Gospel

            We have seen the divine person of the Holy Spirit.  We have seen that He is indeed a person who is the Lord God Almighty.  We have seen the true mystery of the Blessed Trinity.  We have seen the difference between essence and person.  We have seen the work of the Spirit in creation.  We have seen that the Spirit brings about regeneration that produces faith and repentance.  We have seen that the true believer is protected by the Spirit of God.  We have seen the baptism of the Spirit of God.  We have seen the fruit of the Spirit.  And finally, we have seen that the Spirit of God is Another Comforter. 
            Now let’s consider the groups that deny the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit.  We must understand that the Holy Spirit is a divine person.  Divine Scripture is clear about His personality and deity.  We shall see that the way of the world is to deny the Holy Spirit.  We must be equipped and defend the Holy Spirit.  We must arm ourselves with reliable information that shows their denial of the Spirit of God, and use divine Scripture to refute heretics who reject and distort the truth.  The darkness of the world is thick but we must shine as lights through a lost and dark world to exalt Him and His righteousness in truth.  We are pilgrims and foreigners in a barren land.  So, then, be equipped and know the truth set forth in divine Scripture. 
The reason for this presentation is because we deeply love the people of these groups who deny the personality and deity of the Spirit of holiness and truth.  We deeply and seriously care about where they will spend eternity.  We mean this presentation in the spirit of gentleness and respect.  It is our deepest desire for you to heed this special message for you.  We are confident that if the God of the Bible is at work in your heart, you will heed this message of Christ Himself.  This must be done in the fear of God. 

Chapter 2:  The Holy Spirit and Jehovah’s Witnesses

First, let’s understand what the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society teaches about the Holy Spirit.  I wanted to focus on this in a little more detail then the other groups.  I seem to encounter the Witnesses of the Watchtower more then other groups.  We know the Watchtower teaches that it is not persecution to reveal falsehoods about false religion (Watchtower, Execution of Divine Judgment upon False Religion, November 15, 1963).  It teaches that it alone is the organization from God that truly interprets the Christian Bible.  It cannot be properly comprehended but only through the Watchtower organization (all of these references and summaries below of what each group believes are used from H. Wayne House in Cults, Sects & Religious Movements: Watchtower, October 1, 1967, p. 587, Watchtower, May 1, 1957, p. 274, Watchtower, December 12, 1981, p. 27 & Watchtower, December 1, 1990, p. 19).  The New World Translation (hereafter the NWT) is believed to be the best translation by the Watchtower (New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, 1950, p.6 & What Has Religion Done for Mankind, 1951, p. 351). 
Russellites (known as Jehovah’s Witnesses) believe that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force and an active force (Reasoning from the Scriptures, 1985, p. 380 & Holy Spirit, 1976, p.11).  Is this what the divine Scriptures teach?  Is it compatible with authentic Christianity?  The doctrine of the Russellites rejects, deny and disbelieve the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit.  If the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit is rejected then the very nature of God is at stake.  The soul of a sinner who rejects the Holy Spirit is in eternal harm.  Trinitarians do not believe in three separate gods that make up God (Tritheism), nor do we deny the distinctions within the Godhead (Modalism) (Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.], p. 100, 102).  It is not honest to portray both as if it is Trinitarianism.  It is a purposeful error to sway the reader.  Neither of these theologies represents what Trinitarians believe. Russellites teach that the Trinity is an Egyptian and Babylonian mystery (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, pp. 40-41 & Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.] p. 101), and originated from Satan himself (Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.], p. 101).  In Watchtower thought the Trinity is believed to be an untrue doctrine (Reconciliation, 1928, p. 101, Should You Believe in the Trinity? 1989, p. 31, Let God Be True, 1946 [1952 rev.], p. 111, & You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 39).  In reality, Trinitarians believe that the Trinity is properly explained this way: God is one in essence (Deuteronomy 6:4), and three in person (Matthew 28:16-20).  Such an explanation is consistently logical, consistently Scriptural and spiritually real. 
The Watchtower rejects doctrines that are essential to the gospel.  If a person rejects these doctrines it is not without spiritual harm.  These doctrines are essentials for our spiritual health and well-being.  But we are not saved by doctrine.  Yet it is necessary to let us know how a person is saved, but it is Christ alone that saves.  The question is which doctrines are essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ?  And another question is do you believe the true gospel of Jesus Christ?  If you do not believe the true gospel you are accursed (Galatians 1: 6-10).  Let’s consider what are essential to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.  First let’s understand that it is the Scriptures alone that are God-Breathed.  Submit to the divine Scriptures alone and not to a human organization.  Let’s be honest.  We know for sure that God has spoken in His Word. Christ does not inspire falsehood.  The Watchtower directly admits their prophecy blunders in the past (Awake! October 8, 1968, p. 23).  Therefore the Watchtower is not from God because God does not inspire falsehood.  If you want to hold that it alone correctly interprets Scripture as it says, you will have to concede the point of it being from God.  We know that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18).  Therefore we must submit to the divine Surety of the Word of God revealed in the sacred pages of the Old and New Testament alone.

Chapter 3:  The Holy Spirit and Biblical Evidence

The Spirit of God approved the ministry of Jesus when the Spirit descended upon Him but Jesus was always the Christ since His matchless birth (Matthew 3:13-17).  The question is, how can an impersonal force approve someone to a divine task?  How can an impersonal force be holy?  How is it that the Spirit of God in Scripture speaks (Acts 28:25), indwells His people (Romans 8:11), convicts the world of sin (John 16:8-11), and even prevents His people from doing what they desired in Bithynia (Acts 16:7)?  Any serious reading of Scripture shows that the Spirit of God is a divine person.  He is called God (Acts 5:3-4) and His title is the Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14).  You can ask, tell me, how is an impersonal force called the Lord God (Isaiah 61:1)?  He is the One who changes the heart of stone with the divine Word of God (John 3).  He is the One who works in the life of a believer in sanctification.  He is the One who illuminates the mind of His people.  We do not own allegiance to an impersonal force but to the true living God Who is the Holy Spirit.  It is biblically proper to call the Holy Ghost the one true God.  He is the Third Person of the Trinity.  He is the One that is called God by Luke (Acts 5:1-4).  To deny Jesus and the Holy Spirit as equally divine, puts oneself in spiritual harm, and ultimately if someone persists in unbelief about the true gospel (for there is only one true gospel), it will end in eternal torment.
Hell is a real, eternal place (Matthew 25:41). Disbelieve what you have learned, and submit to the Triune God of Scripture (Matthew 28:16-20).  The Spirit of God is everywhere (Psalm 139).  He knows what someone believes about Him.  If you truly repent, it is evidence of the work of the Spirit in granting you to be born from above.  Believe the Triune God; believe the divine Christ; believe the Spirit of Truth, and believe God’s way of salvation for you.  His salvation is not through works of obedience but it is wholly the work of Another!  His name is Jesus Christ.  He totally took the place of His people.  He is the all-sufficient Savior.  It is His work alone that avails in the place of His people.  Do not believe that your ways of obedience will avail to save you.  Rather believe His work is wholly sufficient.  It is by the imputed righteousness of Christ alone by faith alone.  Will you repent and believe the gospel of the Bible alone?  The gospel of the Watchtower will not save anyone.  The Jesus of the Watchtower will not avail before God in someone’s place.  He is not a sufficient or a divine substitute.  But the Bible teaches that Jesus is divinely superior to angels.  The Bible teaches that, the Spirit is a divine person.  Ask:  how shall you stand before God without the work of the God-man for you and without the application of Christ’s work of the Spirit of God to you?  Repent of believing these false doctrines, and live in new obedience to Christ.  Get involved in the true things of God.  Enter a biblical church that preaches the true gospel (the five solas, and doctrines of grace) of biblical Christianity, and practice what Incarnate Deity commands.  What if there really is consciousness after death known as the intermediate state; for doesn’t the Scripture say to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8)?  Where someone will spend eternity is at stake.  Tell them to repent and believe in the gospel of the Spirit of God.
Now let us understand what these groups say about the Holy Spirit.  Most of this information is based on H. Wayne House’s book Cults, Sects & Religious Movements.  The references cited are found in the bibliographical section. 

Chapter 4:  The Holy Spirit and Cayce’s View of Him

             The next group I wish to tell the reader of; is Association for Research and Enlightenment.  We see that Cayce’s view of God demands a different explanation then a Triune God.  He taught that the Trinity is accurate in symbolizing man’s body, soul and mind (Edgar Cayce on Religion and Psychic Experience, p. 241).  We see in the Bible that God is revealed in three distinct persons.  The Third Person of the Trinity is what we are speaking about here.  God is one in essence, and three in person.   We have seen this in presenting the truth to Witnesses of the Watchtower.  Let us tell the world that the Trinity is does not symbolize man’s nature.  We maintain the reality of three distinct persons because God’s divine Word speaks of this.  The question is what is the basis for your belief?  If it is man’s insight, it falls eternally short of the divine Scripture!  Ask: what greater basis would you want besides God’s divine Word?  Either it is Cayce’s views or the Bibles’.  You will never do wrong holding to the truth of God seen in Holy Scripture.

Chapter 5:  The Holy Spirit and the Christadelphians

              According to the Christadelphians, the Holy Spirit is not a person.  Rather He is God’s energy or divine power (The Constitution of the Glendale Christadelphians Ecclesia, p. 18, and God is One Not Three, p. 15).  The Bible supports the Holy Spirit as a real person.  Here the words of Christ who can never err.  For He believed the personality of the Spirit by using personal pronouns:

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”  (John 16:13-15 NKJV).

Christ used personal pronouns to describe the Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth.  He will lead His people into all truth.  He refers to when He will come.  The Spirits guides into all truth.  Only a divine person can do this.  The Spirit will not speak of His own authority.  That is, He does the will of the Father through the Son.  Whatever the Spirit hears He will speak.  He communicates God’s divine truth to His beloved people.  The Spirit will communicate to them the things to come.  Only a person can guide and speaks.  He declares the truth of God to His people that they wrote down in Scripture.  He also guides and directs His people as they read Scripture.


Chapter 6:  The Holy Spirit and the Mormons

              According to the Church of the Latter-Day Saints of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is a spirit man who is the third god and He is an impersonal influence (Articles of Faith, pp. 488).  Matthew 28 indicates that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity.  He is not a third god.  Rather He is the one true God but He is not a spirit man.  When Scripture refers to Him, it always does as the Spirit.  God the Son is the only One within the Godhead to take upon Himself flesh.  God the Spirit did not take upon flesh nor did God the Father.  Therefore the Spirit is Spirit of very Spirit and He is the One true God.

Chapter 7:  The Holy Spirit and the Church Universal and Triumphant

              According to the Church Universal and Triumphant, the Holy Spirit is flame of God, and its main function is to take away karmic debt (Profile: Elizabeth Clare Prophet—Teachings of the Ascended Masters, p. 9, and The Lost Teachings of Jesus, vol. 1, p. 72).  As we have seen the Holy Spirit is indeed a true person.  He is not an impersonal it.  Rather He is a personal He.  If the Holy Spirit is within the one true being of God, it follows that He must be a true person.  He speaks, grieves and hears prayers.  Therefore He must be a real divine person.

Chapter 8:  The Holy Spirit and A Course in Miracles

                 According to A Course in Miracles, the Holy Spirit is the inner voice in all people.  God created the Holy Spirit.  This happened when man experienced the illusion of separation.  The Spirit does not say we have sinned.  Rather He says we have committed mistakes and errors (Cults, Sects & Religious Movements, p. 98). 
                 The Spirit is within the Godhead.  He is called God in Acts 5.  If He God He has the power of being in Himself.  If He has the power of being in Himself, He could not have been created because only God has the power of being in Himself.  A creature does not have the power of being in and of himself.  Only the Creator has it, and rightly so.

Chapter 9:  The Holy Spirit and Eckankar

                  According to Eckankar, teaches that the Holy Spirit is not a person but an impersonal force called Sound and Light (What Is Eckankar, pp. 1-2; What You Need to Know About the Light and Sound of God, p. 1; Eckankar: Ancient Wisdom for Today, pp. 93-94).  How is it logical to say that an impersonal force can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30)?  How is scriptural to say that an impersonal force can speak and be resisted?  Such things are suitable to a personality only not an impersonal force.

Chapter 10:  The Holy Spirit and the Children of God

                  According to the Children of God, the Holy Spirit, as H. Wayne House says in Cults, Sects & Religious Movements on page 129 is called “the naked, sexy wife” of the Father, and Berg claimed he had sexual relations with the Spirit who is called Mother (Disciples and Friends Only, 723:3, 6, 11, 14; 723:20; 723:5, 27 “The Goddess of Love” and Disciples Only, 2115:25, 26, “Our Audience with the King of kings!”).  Such statements about the Holy Spirit are far from the divine Scriptures.  The Holy Spirit is never described as a “she.”  Rather the Spirit is described as a He in John 14 through 16.  There are references in Scripture that refer to experiences of saints with heaven.  But these experiences do not ever include sexual activity.  Actually, the Lord Jesus said that in heaven saints will not be married.  I believe sexual activity which is only for marriage anyway, is restricted to this life.  There will no reproduction in heaven.  For the saints in heaven are not given to marriage but are like the angels in heaven.

Chapter 11:  The Holy Spirit and Freemasonry

                  According to Freemasonry, the Holy Spirit is a type of universal agent and the concept of Him is from Hebrew philosophy (Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, p. 734, 552).  We have seen that the Spirit is the Spirit of God.  He is indeed divine.  The Craft says that God is developing.  Yet we know that He is immutable or unchangeable (Micah 3:6).

Chapter 12:  The Holy Spirit and the Mind Science Groups

                  According to Mind Science Groups, the Holy Spirit is merely a famine quality or a supernatural truth (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 588, Ernest Holmes, What Religious Science Teaches, p. 65 and H. Emilie Cady, Lessons in Truth, p. 8).  The Holy Spirit is the everlasting person of the Godhead.  He is not an actual person according to Christian Science, Religious Science and the Unity School of Christianity.  We see in divine Scripture that the Holy Spirit is spoken of with personal pronouns.  He is the one true God.  It is a spiritual truth that the Spirit is a divine person.  He is not to be associated with a famine quality because it has no Scriptural support.

Chapter 13:  The Holy Spirit and the Reorganized Mormons

                   According to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Holy Spirit is described in impersonal terms as energy or a force (Exploring the Faith, 1987, p. 53, 54, 251).  We know that the Holy Spirit is a divine person.  The Holy Spirit empowers His people because He is all-powerful.  He is distinct from His power; it is His attribute, and only God has such an attribute.

Chapter 14:  The Holy Spirit and Rosicrusianism

                    According to Rosicruianism, the Holy Spirit is called Jehovah, but He is the highest evolved angel that came from Virgin Spirits.  They are alleged to be embodiments of the Universal Life and Principle.  And this is supposed to have sprung from God (KHEL, Rosicrucian Fundamentals, p. 149).  The Holy Spirit is God and He has all the attributes of being divine.  No creature has the power of being in and of Himself except God Himself.  The Holy Spirit is not a created angel.

Chapter 15:  The Holy Spirit and Unification Church

                       According to Unification Church, the Spirit of God is described as a female spirit, the True Mother and the Second Eve (Divine Principle, 2d ed., p. 215, and Moon, “On Prayer and the Spirit World,” sermon, MS-3, p. 20).  The Holy Spirit is not described as female in divine Scripture.  The Holy Spirit is described as a He in Scripture but as a Spirit He is neither male nor female.  It is not Scriptural to say the Spirit of God is female or to use female terms to apply to Him. 

Chapter 16:  The Holy Spirit and the United Pentecostal Church

                       According to the United Pentecostal Church, the Holy Spirit is identified as the Father.  He is not distinct from the Father.  The Father is in Jesus, and that is what makes Him divine.  And the Holy Spirit is also Jesus (Meet the United Pentecostal Church International, p. 61, 59-60, and The P.A.S.T.O.R.S. Course: Pneumatology, Book Three of Five, p. 2).  We know that in John’s Gospel the Lord Jesus petitioned the Father to send the Holy Spirit.  Such indicates the distinctions within the Godhead.  Therefore there are three persons within the Godhead.  The Spirit of Christ proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Chapter 17:  The Holy Spirit and the Urantia Foundation

                       According to the Urantia Foundation, the Holy Spirit is known as a Paradise Mother, and there are many divine Spirits.  The Spirit was created by the Universal Father and the Mother-Son.  There are infinite created Spirits.  There are 700, 000 Creative Daughter Spirits.  These are for one of each Creator Son.  The influence of one of Creative Daughters is the Holy Spirit.  Every individual as the Spirit of Truth.  They are teaching spirits.  They also have a Thought Adjuster.  The Thought Adjuster is another spirit being.  These spirits enter children at six years.  This group says that Christians misunderstand these things as the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit does not live within a person or contacts a person (The Urantia Book, pp. 379, 2061-2062).  The Christian Scriptures does not refer to many Spirits.  The Bible refers to one and the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:11).  Therefore there is only one Spirit (Ephesians 4:4-6).  The Spirit in Scripture does not refer to many different spirits.  The Holy Spirit is a divine person.  He has a full personality and full deity.  He is not merely an influence.  The Holy Spirit acts as a divine person.  The Bible speaks of God indwelling them (Romans 8:11; Ephesians 4:6).

Chapter 18:  The Holy Spirit and The Way International

                   According to The Way International, the Holy Spirit is the Father.  This is because He is holy and a spirit.  There is a “holy spirit” that does not have capital letters.  And it comes from God the Holy Spirit.  Paul spoke of the gift of the “holy spirit” as “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).  The “holy spirit” is an impersonal force.  Christians serve the “holy spirit” as God.  The thinking is that all believers should have the gifts of the Spirit.  People who speak in tongues have evidence that they have the “holy spirit” (Jesus Christ is not God, pp. 127-128, brackets in original, Receiving the Holy Spirit Today, p. 4, 5, 41 and Power for Abundant Living, p. 279, 362).  The Holy Spirit is not God the Father.  The three persons in the Godhead are distinct yet they are One!  The Bible refers to the unique person and work of the Spirit of God.  Colossians 1:2 does mean that the Spirit is an impersonal power.  The Spirit is a person who is God Almighty.  We also know that not all believers receive the gifts of the Spirit. 

Chapter 19:  The Holy Spirit and the false Virgin Mary Cult

                  According to the Mary is God cult, the Holy Spirit has Mary as His Soul.  The Bible speaks against this because the soul of the Spirit of God is His essence.  He had no beginning or end, but the Virgin Mary had a beginning and an end.  Therefore the Spirit alone is God not the false Virgin Mary in any sense. 

Chapter 20:  The Holy Spirit of Christmas Time

                 I have included a gospel presentation on Christmas.  I have done this because I have a passion for truth.  That is, I pray people would worship the Spirit of Christmas.  Christmas time is a glorious time.  Why is Christmas time a glorious time?  Is it only because we receive Christmas presents?  Is it only because we meet with family and friends?  No, it is primarily because of the birth of the glorious Savior-King, Jesus Christ.  He was born on a certain day in history.  His birth was and is incomparable to any other birth.  His birth is the matchless birth.  Christmas time is about a Redeemer who was born to save His people from their sins.  This Redeemer was no ordinary man.  He was and is God Incarnate; the Savior of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. 
                  The gospel of Christmas day is the gospel of the all-sufficient Savior.  Christ preached the true gospel.  It is the gospel of repentance and faith.  Christ also preached the necessity of being born again!  Someone must be born again from the Holy Spirit of Christmas to have genuine, authentic and true faith and repentance.  The Spirit of Christmas is not the spirit of the power of the air.  He is not the Spirit of modern advertising.  He is the Spirit of truth; He is the Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force.  He has a will; He can think; He speaks; He makes judgments and He commands.  The Holy Spirit is the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is the Holy Spirit.  He is the Third Person of the Trinity.  He is a divine person; He is the one true God.  Do you know the Spirit of Christmas?  Or do you just celebrate Christmas as merely a time of giving?  Do you have a personal relationship of obedience with the Christmas Spirit?  The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  The Father sent His Son and Spirit comes from the Father and the Son.  The Author of Christmas is Christ at His birth.  The spiritual father of Christ is the Holy Spirit.  The Virgin Birth is prophetically true, scripturally real and historically valid.  Christ was not conceived by a human father.  God ordained that Joseph would be the step-father of Christ.  The Holy Family of Christmas time should be the model for every family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  The very Creator Himself was born.  Jesus Christ is the Creator of Mary and Joseph, and the angels that proclaimed His birth.  His birth is matchless. 
                   Entering through the narrow gate is difficult.  The Author of the narrow gate is Christ Jesus the Lord Incarnate.  Today people portray salvation as being easy.  It is apart of the heresy of easy believism.  Easy believism is spreading more and more.  But the divine Scriptures do not support easy believism but it supports biblical salvation.  Many enter through the wide gate but Christ says to enter through the narrow gate.  The wide gate is the way that leads to destruction.  Hearken to the narrow gate: repent, believe His gospel and obey what He commands.  Once someone is through that narrow gate, he or she is saved.  Once someone is saved there is no condemnation for them in Christ.  No condemnation in Christ; does not mean sinning with license!  Rather it means that there is no sin that can be charged against the believer.  All sin in the elect only is atoned for by Christ Himself.  The elect sinner is never condemned.  No one can lay any charge against God’s elect.  When sin is committed, a person must faithfully repent. 
                      There are so many who claim to represent Christ with their lips and yet their hearts are far from Him.  Oh, how many do not even believe that Christ is the all-sufficient, or divine, or one of a kind Savior!  The Christ of Scripture is the glorious, all-sufficient, divine and one of a kind; the very agent of creation!  The baby who was born in Bethlehem was Incarnate Divinity.  He was nothing less then God manifested in human flesh.  As a little baby, He was born to be the Savior of His people, and He preached the matchless gospel to people.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He is the door; He is the Bread from Heaven; He is the Good Shepherd; He is the Vine.  This glorious King Incarnate was King at His birth.  He is the person who has two natures: human and divine.  He is the Sinless One, the very eternal Self-Existent Incarnate One; the Second Person of the Trinity.  He is perfectly righteous, and without the capacity to sin; He is the Impeccable One. 
                   Have you experienced “blessed self-despair”?  It is the closest you can come to divine grace.  It is in harmony and in line with the great doctrine of divine predestination.  People believe because they were elected.  Their belief is the evidence of their election.  But God does not foresee their belief and on that basis, choose them.  Turn to the Author of predestination (who is Christ Himself), and never give up.  Elect sinners are predestined unto eternal life.  It is meant to be as an encouragement not a discouragement.  Do not think “I have not been elected to believe.”  Rather be convinced of your election, for when you are, strive to enter through the narrow gate.  Predestination for Christians should be a great motivation to bring the gospel to a dark world.  Submit to the great King of predestination, and live in fruitfulness to serve the Holy Trinity in truth and grace. 
                   God is holy and just.  To stand before Him we need the perfect, unified righteousness of His Beloved Son.  Do you have the imputed righteousness of Christ alone?  Christ died for His people, and the Spirit applies the work of Him to His people.  Turn then on bended knee and worship this King of Glory.  Beware, and repent and believe God’s gospel of forgiveness.  Obey the Lord in following His commands.  Out of love for this King born long ago, we must obey Him, and do what is pleasing to Him.  Therefore hearken to the gospel of Christmas day "...repent and believe in the gospel."  (Mark 1:15 NASB).  The King of Christmas Day is Christ: will you do what He says, and repent and believe?