The righteous branch is an engraved word of God which speaks of three unified cardinal points of life, the resurrection, the restitution and the rapture. It is an open revelation of the true life of the worldly man who gave himself to the will of devil. It spoke at large of how devil deceived man from the reality of life into the belief of vanity and empty glory of the earth. The spirit of God spoke expressly, that there is a magic influence upon the world, a dark shield covering the inner vision of the natural man, thereby making his sight myopic of the vision of eternal glory. The spiritual insight of the word of God has revealed that when the glorious light shall come, then there shall be a fall away of the weak. Those things that are shaking shall be removed and the perfect shall remain, the man of perdition shall be revealed, there shall be no hiding place for the disobedience of God. The righteous branch explores on the exceeding love of Christ to the world. Why he redeemed man from his pathetic state. It elaborated what man should do to inherit the kingdom of God. Also mans allegiance to Christ for the price of his death on the Calvary.

"Whoever is acquainted with . . . the propensity of his own heart . . . must acknowledge that self-righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart . . . it is natural for us all to have recourse to a covenant of works, for our everlasting salvation." This sermon explores the doctrine of the righteousness of Jesus Christ being imputed to mankind, taken from the text of Jeremiah 23:6. It explains who the Lord is and how He is man's righteousness. Four objections are covered and also the ill consequences of denying this doctrine. Finally an exhortation for all to come to faith in Christ. The "Lord Our Righteousness" is one of George Whitefield's most popular sermons.

Most evangelical Christians believe that those people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favor of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed, but due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the "second death"--an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earl Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.

All the writings which come to us from antiquity, including the writings of the Old and New Testaments, have suffered from misadventures. The interpreter of these materials cannot proceed from assumptions which would be accepted without question in the study ofa modern book. The text to be interpreted must first be established-it is not already defined. The available witnesses to the text must first be examined in order to reconstruct a single form of the text which we can assert with confidence to be as close to the form of the autographs as scientific principles can Lead us, if not (ideally) identical with them. The work of textual criticism is both a preliminary and an integral part of the task of interpretation; its role may once have been overrated, just as now it tends to be overlooked, yet its service remains indispensable. The purpose and goal of our critical editions of the Bible is to assist in achieving an objective understanding of the text. They bring together in a convenient form a vast array of material, well beyond the capacity of individual scholars to assemble for themselves, to provide the first requirements for a systematic study of the text. But to deal with all this material and use it effectively we must understand its peculiarities and the value of its various elements. When faced with a difficult passage we cannot simply gather together the various readings and select the one which seems to offer the simplest solution, at times preferring the Hebrew text, at other times the Septuagint, and yet other times the Aramaic Targum. Textual witnesses are not all equally reliable. Each has its own character and its own peculiar history. We must be familiar with these if we hope to avoid inadequate or false solutions.

This special edition of the Lectures on Faith from Zion’s Camp Books is formatted for convenience on an eReader, with more than 100 internal links to scriptures and citations. We hope it will give you a great reading experience! The Lectures on Faith were originally prepared as materials for the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio in 1834 and were included in the Doctrine and Covenants from 1835 to 1921. Although the Lectures on Faith have never been accepted as revelation by the body of the church (and so were removed from the Doctrine and Covenants in 1921), they contain important doctrinal insights that can help anyone seeking to learn more about faith and come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. President Joseph Fielding Smith noted, “I suppose that the rising generation knows little about the Lectures on Faith. . . . In my own judgment, these Lectures are of great value and should be studied. . . . I consider them to be of extreme value in the study of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Seek Ye Earnestly. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1970.) Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has stated the lectures contain “some of the best lesson material ever prepared on the Godhead; on the character, perfections, and attributes of God; on faith, miracles, and sacrifice. They can be studied with great profit by all gospel scholars.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966.)