If someone has to tell bad news and good news and doesn't want to hurt the other, he/she has the tendency to emphasize the good news. Or he/she leaves the bad news out and supposes that the other will recognize the bad news from the message. For example, when there is a competition between team A and team B, by telling a supporter of team A that team B has won.

However, not telling clearly or leaving out the bad news can damage the good news. Especially if someone almost knows nothing about the subject where the bad and the good news are related to. We see this nowadays in many believers groups where attention is being paid to good news, but where bad news is not being told clearly or is left out.

Therefore the aim of this website is to tell the bad news clearly in order to appreciate the good news. About what? About what the Bible teaches us when we die. Why should we take the Bible seriously? It is the only book which is filled with prophecies which became fulfilled many hundreds of years later. Only about Jesus Christ are more than 30 prophecies fulfilled.

Almost all Bibles have been divided by man into the Old Testament and the New Testament or into the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. A division which is not correct at all because in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we find not one word about the Old Testament. And the New Testament was not made until the death of Christ. This means that the greater part of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John actually covers Old Testament rather than New Testament history and that Jesus Christ and His disciples all lived under the old covenant at that time.

The most important division in the Bible is that between Prophecy and the Mystery proclaimed by the apostle Paul. Genesis 1:1 teaches us: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It does not speak about the creation of the universe, but about the heaven and the earth. This is because God's purpose concerning the earth is quite distinct from His purpose concerning heaven. His purpose concerning the earth and Christ's reign upon it is the subject of Prophecy (2 Peter 1:16-19) and His purpose concerning heaven and our exaltation there with Christ is the subject of the Mystery (Ephesians 2:4-10, 3:1-4). Basic distinctions between Prophecy and the Mystery are:

In Acts 9 we read how God started the program of the Mystery after that the nation Israel did not repent and did not wanted to listen to the Father (through John the Baptist), neither to the Son Himself and neither to the Holy Spirit (through the Pentecostal believers). This program will stop at the Rapture of everyone who is in Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Afterwards God will continue with the program of Prophecy.

The bad news is the original sin and its consequences. Paul teaches us about the original sin in a clear way in his letter to the Romans:
- "Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all man, for that all have sinned:" (Romans 5:12);
- "Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; ..." (Romans 5:18);
- "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23);
- "as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" (Romans 3:10).

So we are sinners by nature and by choice. This causes a chasm with God. A chasm which leads to death and to condemnation. Only the coming of a second Adam who wouldn't sin and who would offer himself for all our sins could redeem us. And this happened more than 1950 years ago with the coming and the death of Jesus Christ.

The good news in the present program of the Mystery is that the sinful man in Adam can place himself through faith in a justified man in Jesus Christ, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). Romans 3:24-26 teaches us:
"being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

And the proclamation of this good news is our commission. This is us clearly being told in 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2:
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new;
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)"

Today can be your day of salvation if you accept the good news in the present program of the Mystery.
Believe that Jesus Christ has taken your original sin on Him and that He died for your sins. Believe that he was buried and risen on the third day. Believe this before you die, because then it is too late.
If you accept the good news, people around you might consider you foolish. Even this has been prophecied more than 1950 years ago:
"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Paul teaches us in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 the bad news for those who don´t know God and for those, who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
"in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;"

© 2008 - 2024 Rob van der Zee