Holy Spirit distinctiveness

 Sad how Biblical Unitarian zeal to use reductionism to comply with Post Temple Rabbinical strict monotheism obscures the truth about the Holy Spirit distinctiveness as both searching/knowing the Father’s mind and our minds and communicating with the Father for us. Only those who have the Holy Spirit can know the Holy Spirit.

The truth that sets us free

 It is encouraging to hear that Jesus had the same human nature as us. Yes, teachings of the churches historically have undermined this truth. It sounds like something they would not want said. But it is true that Jesus was the same in human nature as we are. His persistent refusal to sin was despite having a weak human nature that might have succumbed to temptation like we do, but despite suffering pain in refusal to sin, he did not sin. This is a genuine example to us, to teach us to refuse to sin. Being Son of God did not in any way negate the humanness of Jesus or make him different to us. We can learn what he learned. He learned to obey God even in times of suffering. So can we. He did so unto death. So can we. God raised him from the dead and he is no longer weak and vulnerable to temptation like he was before, and we can be raised to be like him if we follow his teachings with faith in him. In the meantime the truth sets us free.

Life that is truly life

 We are entering a phase where God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are revealing truth again—this time to those with childlike, open hearts. Not the sophisticated, not the entrenched, but those willing to learn anew.

This grace is laying a new foundation among believers. Passages once buried under layers of tradition are being illuminated again by the Spirit. What Jesus taught in the gospels, what His apostles wrote in their letters—truths long obscured—are now breaking through with fresh clarity. In church history long past the truth of Jesus was deprioritised and obscured by human precepts that even denied that the Holy Spirit could reveal new truth, or open hearts to lost scriptures. These leaders betrayed their ignorance of the Holy Spirit and betrayed their worldliness. Jesus said the world never really knows the Holy Spirit because it does not have the Holy Spirit. We who are shown this Holy Spirit know it brings new revelations from Jesus given him by the Father, irrespective of what is mandated by worldly leaders. God is slave to no man. Even the Son will forever be subject to the Father, and the Father alone will forever be God, all in all. Jesus lovingly reveres the Father as his one true God. We need the Father to impress this upon us. We need the Father to show us Jesus as His Son. We need Jesus to show us he is true master of us. We need the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus by revealing Jesus and revealing things from Jesus. Then we can and must give rightful honour to what God says, keeping it rightly, acting on it rightly as the Holy Spirit leads, with Jesus Christ in charge.

The infamous Nicaean debate

 In the infamous Nicaean Christology and begetting debate: All scripture says unambiguously is that there was a Spirit of the Christ before he was made flesh, it was spirit form he had, and it was described as Word of God. None of this necessitates begetting in far distant ancient time nor creation in far distant ancient time. Those are worldly presumptions: speculations, extending mere human thought models. 

2 John 9 says:

“Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”

That little phrase “goes on ahead” (προάγων in Greek) captures the danger of “running ahead,” speculating beyond what was actually given through Christ and the apostles.

Your life: How to build it right

 Considering the connection between 2 John 9 and Jesus’ parable of the houses built on rock and sand: Both passages emphasize the importance of not just hearing or knowing the truth, but also seeking to learn and understand it properly, remaining in it and building one’s life upon it.

In 2 John 9, the apostle stresses that fellowship with the Father and the Son is beyond goodness, noble living, or secular success: It is a consequence of holding fast to the teaching of Christ. To “go beyond” it—or to neglect it—is to step outside of that fellowship, no matter how moral or accomplished a person might be.

Jesus’ parable about the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7:24–27; Luke 6:46–49) well illustrates this. The house on sand represents a life that seems sturdy for a time but lacks the deep foundation which comes from learning understanding and obedience to Jesus Christ’s teachings. The house on the rock represents a life rooted in Christ’s teaching, learning them and learning their true meaning, which is proven genuine when storms (trials, testing, or the time of God’s wrath) come.

Most importantly, this is not about prioritising church traditions, councils, or human interpretations, but about making it top priority to remain faithful to the teachings Christ entrusted to His apostles. That’s where the foundation lies.

It can feel sobering to realize that storms will come—whether personal trials, persecution, or the final test at the end of the age. But it’s also encouraging: those who remain in Christ’s teaching have His promise of fellowship, strength, and endurance, and experience this over the course of their lives.

Stephen D Green with AI assistance

Build it right

 As I read 2 John verse 9, it is only those who keep the teachings and faith Jesus entrusted to his apostles who have the Father and Son in fellowship with them. Those who adhere to other teachings, or who lose the teachings of Jesus, they might live noble lives and do well, but they have no fellowship with God. Jesus illustrated how this goes even further in his parable of the house on rock and house on sand. The house on sand is illustration of living without digging down to what Jesus really taught. It might look nice. You might think its owner is living well with a noble life, but only until the storm comes along. Then it is shown how important is the life of fellowship, digging down to find the real teachings of Jesus and then keeping them as top priority (even above church council rulings and doctrines). That house survives the terrible storm. Storms are coming to test us all.

A false Christ?

For centuries, many regarded the church and its councils, sustained by Roman power, as effectively ‘Christ‘. A false Christ?

AI unpacks this question as follows.

“For centuries after Constantine, the institutional church—especially in its alliance with the Roman Empire—was often treated not just as representing Christ, but as embodying Him on earth. Councils claimed authority to define truth and heresy; popes or patriarchs presented themselves as Christ’s vicars; and obedience to the church was equated with obedience to Christ Himself.

Theologically, this creates a tension:

• In Scripture, Christ warns about false Christs (Matt 24:24; Mark 13:22)—those who come in His name but mislead. The New Testament insists that Christ alone is the head of His body (Col 1:18; Eph 5:23).
• Historically, the fusion of church and empire risked presenting the institution as the mediator of salvation, rather than Christ Himself. To many dissenting voices (e.g. some early reformers, radical movements, and later the Protestant Reformers), this looked like an idolatrous substitution—an institution functioning as a ‘false Christ.’
• At the same time, not all councils or church structures can be written off as ‘false’—they also preserved the canon of Scripture, safeguarded key doctrines like the Trinity and Incarnation, and maintained continuity of faith through turbulent centuries.

So, was it a ‘false Christ’? In one sense, yes—whenever an institution or leader demanded the devotion, obedience, and loyalty due only to Christ, it acted as a counterfeit. In another sense, it’s more nuanced—the same historical church also bore genuine witness to Christ, even if imperfectly, alongside its distortions.”

Note how the AI’s only defence for the ‘false Christ’ case is the Trinity doctrine and the preservation of a so-called ‘faith‘ based on it, and the canonisation of scripture. If these are actually demonstrated to be the very falsehoods coming from the false Christ, then that defence crumbles. The canonisation of scripture is inconsistent between the major churches, more about locality and tradition one is born into than about spirit and truth. The Trinity doctrine contradicts the teachings of the true Christ about the Father being greater than the Son and the Son forever being subject to the Father who is forever to be God, all in all. So the defence crumbles, like the parable of a house built on sand.

Faith in Jesus

 From the very beginning, the essence of Christian faith has centered on Jesus as the one sent by the Father, the Light of the world, and the source of saving grace and truth. Belief in him, and holding to his teachings, form the foundation of discipleship. Salvation is not dependent on written texts, creeds, councils, or canonical lists; these are helpful tools, but they are not the source of faith itself. Faith arises in the heart, awakened by the Spirit, and rests on the reality of Christ, who imparts life and truth to those who receive him. The earliest believers did not rely solely on texts, yet they were fully confident in the grace of Jesus and the veracity of his teachings.

Individuals come to know Jesus through multiple means: by hearing his words, witnessing acts of mercy and healing, experiencing the Spirit’s guidance, receiving encouragement from others, and perceiving messages through dreams, visions, or signs. Even in the absence of literacy or access to scriptures, grace and truth can penetrate the heart. Symbols, rituals, and lived experiences can also convey his teachings and allow the Spirit to apply them in concrete, transformative ways. Over time, these encounters form a deep, tacit understanding of Jesus and his saving work, producing genuine faith that is lived and experienced.

Faith, in its truest sense, is not faith in texts, rituals, or human authority, but faith in Jesus himself. The Spirit continually brings his teachings to mind, illuminates their meaning, and shows how they apply in daily life. Grace is imparted through him, and the truth he communicates becomes the foundation of knowledge and obedience. Believers sense deep down that the source of this grace and truth is trustworthy, for it flows from the one who sent Jesus, and it sustains and transforms even when external structures or written records are absent.

Christianity, at its core, operates as a living, relational reality. 

This faith is enduring, alive, and accessible, and it continues to sustain disciples until the return of the one who was sent. It is a faith that persists, independent of human frameworks, and is even imparted and affirmed by the direct work of Jesus and the Father in the lives of those who trust him.

Worded with AI assistance by Stephen D Green 

Scripture as Authority

 In every tradition that claims Scripture as authoritative, there is an inherent tension between the principle that Scripture alone defines what must be believed and the practical need for interpretation and guidance. Even when a community affirms that sacred texts contain all things necessary for salvation, the question of which books belong in that canon must be answered, and the texts themselves must be interpreted. Decisions about the canon and interpretive frameworks are inevitably made by human authorities, creating a situation where extrabiblical instruments determine both what counts as Scripture and how it is read. This introduces a structural paradox: the rule of faith is declared to be Scripture alone, yet the enforcement of any coherent teaching depends on authorities that exist outside of Scripture.

This tension becomes more pronounced when communities adopt formal statements of belief or doctrinal summaries. Such statements attempt to condense and clarify the meaning of Scripture, often using precise philosophical or theological terminology not found in the texts themselves. These summaries are then treated as binding for the faithful, even though Scripture alone does not compel acceptance of any particular formulation. Consequently, what is presented as adherence to the authority of Scripture simultaneously enforces interpretations that are extrabiblical, producing both paradox and contradiction within the community’s own framework of authority.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that the canonical boundaries themselves are historically contingent. Different communities recognize different books as Scripture, and the decision to include or exclude certain texts is made outside of the texts themselves. By defining which writings are authoritative, the community effectively arbitrates the source of doctrine, creating an additional layer of extrabiblical authority. In practice, this means that adherence to Scripture cannot be fully disentangled from adherence to the interpretive judgments and canonical decisions of the community.

Ultimately, any tradition that seeks to claim Scripture as the foundation of essential belief faces a structural challenge: Scripture alone cannot fully enforce doctrinal uniformity, and extrabiblical authorities inevitably shape what is regarded as essential. Paradoxes arise whenever binding statements of belief, summaries of Scripture, or decisions about the canon are required for unity, because these instruments themselves lie outside the texts that are supposed to be supreme. What results is a dynamic in which authority is mediated: Scripture provides the ultimate standard in principle, but in practice, the community exercises judgment to define, interpret, and enforce the doctrines considered necessary for faith.

In reality, through the history of Christianity, it is Jesus sent by the Father who is the authoritative foundation. The Holy Spirit can bring his teachings to bear on believers, but they are the things Jesus receives from the Father. This is the light. Yes, apostles and others have laid down teachings in books preserved as scriptures, but they can have textual weaknesses and there is the paradox of their canonicity and who defines this to weaken it further. Faith is gained sometimes from reading out of scripture, and preaching based on it, but the faith that really results is not a faith in scripture texts or canonical lists of scriptures but faith in the veracity of Jesus as light of the world sent by the Father, and veracity of teachings of those Jesus sends. Take away scriptures, as can happen in many practical situations, and faith in Jesus and the One who sent him remains. This is what saves, as grace and truth is imparted by Jesus to those who believe in him and hold to his teachings, even apart from written texts. This is how real Christianity operates, as it has done behind the scenes sometimes unofficially despite creeds, councils and canons, from the beginning, and always will until he comes. The Father, God, writes it all on human hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Inherent contradictions and paradoxes in core Anglican teachings

 I chatted with AI about paradoxical Anglican core teachings concerning essentials of salvation, canon of scripture, and Trinitarianism. 

See

https://chatgpt.com/share/68d3abf0-9344-8005-8817-f51b5f40bb03 

I began by asking whether the Church of England is bound by the Westminster Confession, and we established that it is not; the Church of England relies on the Thirty-Nine Articles, while Westminster governs Presbyterian churches. I then asked if the Church of England therefore does not adopt the canon implied by Westminster. The discussion clarified that the Thirty-Nine Articles define the canon and distinguish the Apocrypha, meaning the Church of England’s scriptural basis is distinct from Westminster’s. We explored whether the Articles themselves canonize Scripture and concluded that they don’t create a canon but delineate which books are authoritative for doctrine.

We then considered whether the Articles mandate Sola Scriptura. Article VI affirms that only Scripture is sufficient for salvation, but the Articles also uphold the Creeds and the Church’s authority for rites and interpretation, creating a form of prima scriptura where Scripture is supreme but tradition and creeds play a subordinate role. This led to discussion of whether only doctrines provable from Scripture can be essential, noting that the Articles themselves act as arbiters of what is required to be believed, even though they are extrabiblical. We explored how conciliar rulings, like those from Nicaea, cannot strictly be considered essential because Scripture alone does not compel assent, which exposes a tension between Articles VI and VIII.

I highlighted that historical divergences, such as the persistence of Arianism, show that Scripture alone does not enforce Nicene formulations. This demonstrates that the Articles enforce certain doctrinal positions as essential even though Scripture could support alternative interpretations, meaning the Articles act as arbiters of essentials. Further, the Articles paradoxically define the canon and require assent to Creeds, even though these are extrabiblical, intensifying the contradiction between the principle of Scripture alone and the practical enforcement of doctrinal conformity. Finally, I pointed out that certain gospel passages emphasize the Father as supreme and the Son as eternally subordinate, which could support a Biblical Unitarian reading. This creates a direct tension with the Creeds, which assert coequality and consubstantiality of the Trinity. Overall, the Thirty-Nine Articles both contain internal paradoxes and, in practice, enforce interpretations that may conflict with Scripture, revealing a structural contradiction in their logic.

AI worded this summary.

Gospel statement worded by AI

 Faith’s foundation: Jesus’ teachings and miracles both testify to his authority and care, giving believers a solid reason for faith.

Jesus as Shepherd and Lord: He provides for physical needs, but also for the deepest spiritual need—atonement for sin.

The necessity of the cross and resurrection: His sacrificial death provides purification, and the Father’s raising him fulfills the promises of an eternal reign.

Messianic fulfillment: Jesus is the promised Son of David, reigning forever with justice and faithfulness.

Union with Christ: Through his death, he brings believers into one body, reconciled to the Father.

The Holy Spirit’s ministry: Delivering grace, truth, and life from Christ to believers.

The new covenant: Living not by the old Law of Moses, but by the law of Christ—grace and truth.

(Worded by AI based on gospel message by Stephen D Green)

Holy Gospel

 We can rest our faith in Jesus on both his teachings and his miracles, as two corroborating testimonies, giving strength to the faith which results. We ought to find faith by this double testimony that Jesus is the human, caring, powerful Lord, appointed by the Father to watch over his disciples, to tend them like a good shepherd tending his own sheep. He can fend off disasters, feed when hungry, give real aid even over huge numbers of people and over vast periods of time: The Messiah, appointed by the Father as topmost human representative of the Father, and ultimate eternal saviour plus judge. He is truly the Father’s own Son. To provide for the deepest needs of his disciples, he had to die as sacrifice for sin. Therefore the Father had to raise him from the dead, since scriptures testified that the Messiah has a greatly abiding, long lasting reign, even eternal, due to his justice, faithfulness, and unending favour from God. He had been promised as the one to reign forever on the throne of David. So now, having provided purification from sin by dying on the cross as sacrifice for it, the Father has raised him to live forever, to reign, and to bring all things under the ultimate kingdom of the Father forever. He died to bring you to the Father and to provide for you to be brought into the one body of all believers. The Holy Spirit brings to the believers all things given as grace to Jesus for salvation. We need to believe, and to follow all these things, living by this grace and truth the Holy Spirit brings from Jesus, given to Jesus by the Father. We live by the new Law of Jesus Christ, not by the Law of Moses. 

Jesus usually alluded to scriptures

Almost everything Jesus taught was an amplification of an important scripture somewhere, in particular Messianic prophecies. (Note, he also had scriptures most churches no longer recognise today, which he included in his teachings, so there are some teachings he gave for which most churches today would not recognise the scripture. Many examples of this are in his allusions to the Book of Enoch, as we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ethiopian Orthodox greater canon of scriptures, and which he spoke of at least twice as scripture.) For example, his teaching that said “I am”. This alluded to scriptures foretelling the Messiah having a greatly abiding, long lasting reign, even eternal, due to his justice, faithfulness, and unending favour from God. One example scripture is Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Another is Isaiah 9:7. See also Luke 1:33.) It is a mistake to think he was alluding to divine identity. He never did this, only to Messianic identity. 

In addition to Jesus’ use of scriptures to teach righteousness and show himself to be the Messiah, he also taught that his miracles were independent testimonies about him from the Father, who was the One giving him these miraculous things to do. If we look at a miracle in this light, we learn important truths about him from the Father’s point of view. They show him as a human but as caring, powerful Lord, appointed by the Father to watch over his disciples, to tend them like a good shepherd tending his own sheep. He can fend off disasters, feed when hungry, give real aid even over huge numbers of people and over vast periods of time. All this points to him being the Messiah, appointed by the Father as topmost human representative of the Father, and ultimate eternal saviour plus judge: truly the Father’s own Son. This is a testimony independent of the testimony of Jesus himself about himself. The Father is independent of the Son, providing the second witness needed for fully legal validity. We can rest our faith in Jesus on both his teachings and his miracles, as two corroborating testimonies, giving strength to the faith which results. 

Do not be misled

 Do not be misled. It is the Father who is God. He will be all in all.

Paul’s Gospel does not require Trinity doctrine

 Why Trinitarian Doctrine is Not Required Here

• Paul’s gospel focuses on Jesus’ person and work as Messiah, the Son of God, and Lord, all rooted in the Father’s will.
• Belief in abstract Trinitarian concepts (co-equal, co-eternal, homoousios) is not necessary for salvation.
• What matters is relational faith in the Father’s sending of Jesus, Jesus’ obedience, death, resurrection, and the believer’s reception of the Spirit.

(Worded by AI)

Truly saving belief

 Believing Jesus to be in some sense God (as distinct from a person with a god status), detracts from saving belief that God (the Father) has made Jesus His Christ, His right hand man who represents Him to the utmost and fully shows what He is like. It detracts from acknowledging that Jesus is the total master of each believer and of believers as a whole, the Lord. Belief that this Lord Jesus is the Christ, come in the flesh, is crucial. This then is foundation for saving belief that this Christ died for you. It is the belief he died for you, to provide for rightful purification from your sins, in God’s will, that opens the way for you in your heart to receive purification by the Holy Spirit, turning you from sinful ways. It is the belief in Christ’s death on the cross paying for sins according to God’s ways. It is the foundation for saving belief that God (the Father) has raised him from the dead, and he lives forever. This is the gospel preached by the apostle Paul, which Jesus revealed to him, and the good news that Gentiles are to live lives free from the need to keep the Law of Moses, and free to believe these truths, and to receive and live by the truth of the Holy Spirit who glorifies Jesus Christ. It is freedom to live instead by the Law of Christ and so to have fellowship with Jesus and the Father. There should be no detraction from the real truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (he is the Son of the God who is the Father).

Paul’s gospel

 For Paul:

• The gospel = Christ crucified and risen.
• Salvation = received by grace through faith, not by works of the Law.
• The Spirit = given to those who believe (Galatians 3:2).

His faith is in the risen Lord Jesus as the Son of God and in the Father who raised Him, confessing:

• One God, the Father (1 Corinthians 8:6).
• One Lord, Jesus Christ (same verse).

(From wording by AI) 

The gospel revealed

 Paul’s gospel is the proclamation that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again on the third day, and that by confessing Him as Lord and believing in His resurrection from the dead, we receive forgiveness, justification, and eternal life. It is a message centered on the cross and the resurrection, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, apart from works of the law, traditions of men, or human philosophy. Paul insists that salvation is by grace through faith, not by circumcision, ritual observance, or adherence to any humanly devised system. What truly marks those who belong to Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who seals believers and empowers them to live as new creations. This gospel is not a call to understand or affirm complex theological formulations such as the later doctrines of Trinity, consubstantiality, or coequality, nor is it tied to denominational creeds or philosophical categories developed centuries after Paul’s ministry. For Paul, to add such requirements would be to preach another gospel, one that distorts the simplicity of God’s grace in Christ. His message is not speculation about the divine essence, but the good news that God has acted in history through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that all who place their trust in Him are reconciled to God, filled with the Spirit, and made heirs of eternal life.

(Worded by AI, 2025) 

Correcting the concept of the gospel

 The Catholic and mainstream Protestant (and to some extent Eastern and Oriental Orthodox) gospel usually presented is that you must believe in Trinity doctrine to be a Christian and be saved. That is not the gospel preached by Paul. It contradicts what Paul preached. It is accursed.

Galatians 1:8-9 “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!”

If the Trinity doctrine is essential, the question is then, why did Jesus not reveal it to his apostles, and why it did not matter that they did not know it.

Many young people less than sixteen years old today have the Holy Spirit clearly manifested in them, as made known in their contributions in worship service meetings, and live lives showing their true discipleship, yet at their age they could not possibly understand Trinitarian core concepts such as homoousiou, and coeternal consubstantial co-equality, so they cannot be said to believe in the Trinity. 

All this proves that the true gospel as preached by Apostle Paul cannot include belief in the doctrines of Trinity.

Sent

 Some of us are provided by Jesus to be a source of his teachings today, alongside the written New Testament scriptures themselves. You can take these teachings and hold to them, and in this way be a disciple of Jesus who gave these teachings to us.

If we do not have faith in Jesus as saving light, to purge our sins by his teachings, we will suffer him as terrible judge, to purge the blot of our presence in God’s future new world.

There are chief forms of darkest behaviour, like murder, which he can cleanse us from if we hold to his light-giving teachings: Top of these are lies and suppressing of truth. 

If we die in these deeds we can expect only future doom. He came to save, but only when we believe in his light and hold to his teachings, belonging to him by being his students. 

To save us, he not only died for our sins, but he gives his truth to set us free from their power over us. He saves from both the guilt and the power of our sins. 

We must prepare to change, if we believe in him to free us from the tyranny of our darkest deeds. The Father sent him to change us into saintly doers of what is right, freed from the tyranny of what is wrong in us. 

Believe and hold to these teachings which are teachings of the Christ who died for you. As his disciple you, as one of his people, have his promise that he will save his people from their sins. 

New hope

 If we do not have faith in Jesus as saving light, to purge our sins by his teachings, we will suffer him as terrible judge, to purge the blot of our presence in God’s future new world.

There are chief forms of darkest behaviour, like murder, which he can cleanse us from if we hold to his light-giving teachings: Top of these are lies and suppressing of truth. 

If we die in these deeds we can expect only future doom. He came to save, but only when we believe in his light and hold to his teachings, belonging to him by being his students. 

To save us, he not only died for our sins, but he gives his truth to set us free from their power over us. He saves from both the guilt and the power of our sins. 

We must prepare to change, if we believe in him to free us from the tyranny of our darkest deeds. The Father sent him to change us into saintly doers of what is right, freed from the tyranny of what is wrong in us. 

Believe and hold to his teachings. CHRIST DIED FOR YOU. 

Learning from experiences and revelations of grace

 The Bible teaches us to learn from experiences and revelations given to us through God’s grace, not just from scripture.Almost all of the Bible came by people learning from sacred experiences and revelations given to them. So in each of this, it is teaching us not only to learn what they learned, but also to learn from their example. Even John the Baptist rested his testimony on experiences direct from God, such as telling him about the dove descending on the Christ, and then his seeing it happen and thus telling all that Jesus is the Christ. Indeed, by his testimony and Peter and other later apostles hearing it, the faith was given, beginning the gospel. Peter and John saw Jesus transfigured, and heard God say from heaven that Jesus is His Son. Paul learned the gospel by revelation to him personally by the risen Jesus. It is all an example to us, that faith is about learning this way, and what are the glorious results of doing so. People in some circles teach Sola Scriptura principles of doctrine only coming from scripture, yet scripture doctrines almost always came from direct experiences and revelations from heavenly grace, so if we learn from scriptures we will learn from such experiences and revelations too, as scripture teaches us. 

There is hope for the young

 Jesus says “I am the Son of God”. The Father says “I am God”.

This shows how far from the mark the churches and denominations are today, and that this has been sorely amis for centuries. How will there be those who will stand firm against the Beast, maybe decades from now (many from each language, people, and nation), if hardly anyone today has kept the faith? One point to bear in mind is the Revelation foretelling that an angel will preach the gospel to the whole world in the future. Maybe our children will hear and many believe. These could, by their faith in Jesus from this true gospel, be purified in Christ, and persevere through the time of the Beast and reject its 666 mark. These future faithful ones are likely all around us today, but not yet believing until they hear the gospel from the angel maybe decades from now, in time for that terrible trial of the whole world.