Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: augustine

  • 2 Timothy 1 – For this Gospel I was appointed

    2 Timothy 1 – For this Gospel I was appointed

    Google map of the Roman world with stops of the Apostle Paul including Lystra where Timothy joined Christ's mission

    For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher,

    Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy 1:11 RSV

    Paul’s Gospel of God and Christ

    The Apostle has begun his final pastoral epistle with encouragement of young Timothy as his beloved son appointed to continue in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    From Personal Sonship to Apostolic Responsibility for the Gospel

    Paul also identifies some of who fall away from Christ and others who remain faithful. (It remains a pattern for the ages.)

    What is Paul’s Gospel?

    And now - the Gospel The Logic of Paul's NEWS for the Corinthians 15:1-11 logic ethics emotion triangle

    εὐαγγέλιον

    euangelion

    Paul has written to the Romans, faithful saints in the city in which the Apostle is imprisoned and awaiting death:

    Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel G2098 of God,

    Romans 1:1 KJV

    To the Corinthian saints Paul writes:

    .. for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. G2098

    1 Corinthians 4:15b KJV

    and

    But if our gospel G2098 be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

    2 Corinthians 4:3 KJV 

    We could point to additional epistles of Paul to the saints of various churches.

    Paul refers to the GOSPEL 74 times in 68 verses in ‘The Pauline Epistles.’

    God’s Divine plan now revealed in Christ

    That’s the Apostles’ NEW Good News!

    In Paul’s earlier pastoral letter to Timothy the Apostle had written:

    As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,

    1 Timothy 1:3 RSV 

    Certain saints supposedly committed to Christ had already wavered away from the Gospel Paul taught.

    Now we know that the law is good, if any one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane..

    and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God

    with which I have been entrusted.

    1 Timothy 1:8-11 excerpt RSV

    I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; and this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

    who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see.

    To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

    1 Timothy 6:14-16 RSV – charge of the Apostle Paul to Timothy

    Paul worships God and Christ, pointing to the promise of the eternal mystery now revealed in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

    Paul’s Gospel of SALVATION in JESUS

    manifested by the appearing of our Savior

    join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us

    and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works,

    but according to His own purpose and grace

    which was given to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

    but now has been manifested by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus,

    who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

    2 Timothy 1:8b-10 LSB

    Jesus is now revealed as our Savior and it is death from which He has saved us.

    This is the gospel of Jesus as our saviour which Paul emphasizes throughout this last pastoral epistle to Timothy and saved saints of the Church.

    2 Timothy Commentary

    Retain the standard of sound words

    Hold to the standard of sound words that you heard from me and do so with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus

    2 Timothy 1:13 New English Translation

    Hold fast the form of sound words…

    2 Tim 1:13a KJV

    Retiens dans la foi..

    LS

    Retén la forma

    SE

    1:13 ὑποτύπωσιν ἔχε ὑγιαινόντων λόγων

    Retain – echō is the word Paul uses.

    The Apostle has used [ὑποτύπωσις]hypotypōsis  in his first epistle as well:

    Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern G5296 to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

    1 Tim 1:16 KJV

    And again Paul states here:

    Hold fast the form G5296 of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

    2 Tim 1:13 KJV

    His outline [or pattern] here is for Timothy and any pastor who will follow in the authority of Christ Jesus — the Apostolic faith which Paul, Peter and others have echoed.

    RETAIN THIS, insists Paul.

    Preachers, Apostles and Teachers

    This self-discipline [v.7] to which the Apostle has already pointed requires preachers and teachers to retain this pattern of Paul.

    Therefore do not be ashamed of either the witness about our Lord or me His prisoner..

    2 Tim 1:8a LSB 

    a brief reminder about apostles, preachers and teachers.. and then, saints:

    An Apostle is ‘sent out’ or set apart under the Authorithy through God and Christ.

    IF you address your preacher standing in a pulpit going nowhere but the stage of their church as Apostle So-and-so, you miss the Apostolic authority Paul calls for preachers and teachers to retain as our pattern in Christ Jesus.

    Paul points out that he was appointed [tithēmi ] to all these responsibilities. He is an apostle, a preacher and teacher.

    The Church often used a symbolic laying on of hands for such offices, but the true sign is of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.

    Preachers

    kēryx is the same word Peter used of Noah calling him, ‘a preacher of righteousness.’ It’s a noun meaning: a herald or messenger vested with public authority.

    You’ll recognize Paul’s point from its verb meaning to preach or proclaim.

    From that time Jesus began to preach G2784 and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

    Gospel of Matthew 4:17 LSB

    and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed [ G2784] in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

    “You are witnesses of these things.

    Gospel of Luke 24:46-48 LSB – Jesus to the Apostles just prior to His ascension

    Paul reminds Timothy:

    That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.

    2 Timothy 1:12 NLT

    Teachers

    διδάσκαλος – in the NT one who teaches concerning the things of God, and the duties of man

    “A disciple is not above his teacher G1320, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher G1320, and the slave like his master.

    Gospel of Matthew 10:24-25a LSB  

    And a reminder that mathētēs is any student or disciple of a teacher. 

    Slave is doulos which we often gently translate, servant. 

    And again the significance of the teacher (whether Paul or Jesus or a teaching Elder of your church) is that relationship — 

     of Teacher-Student or Master-Servant — kyrios - the same word often used for the Lord JESUS points to the authority of God.

    “You call Me Teacher G1320 and Lord  G2962; and you are right, for so I am.

    Gospel of John 13:13 LSB – Jesus to His Disciples

    a duty of the saints and pastors

    Now if any one says that we need not direct men how or what they should teach, since the Holy Spirit makes them teachers, he may as well say that we need not pray, .. or that the Apostle Paul should not have given directions to Timothy and Titus as to how they should teach others.

    And these three apostolic epistles ought to be constantly before the eyes of everyone who has obtained the position of a teacher in the Church.

    ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE – AD 397 & 426 – translated JF Shaw, book IV, ch xxxiii excerpt – ST. AUGUSTINE of Hippo

    Augustine, an elevated father of the early Church, presents sound reasons why all saints of Christ ought to dutifully follow their teachers and why all pastors can only lead their sheep of Christ’s pasture in diligence of prayer, obeying the Holy Spirit and keeping in Scripture, including these pastoral epistles.

    Guard the Truth

    guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

    Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy 1:14 RSV 
    * SUMMARY OF THIS GOSPEL:
    Christ alone is the good shepherd...
    Christ’s sheep know only Christ’s voice 
    and follow it.

    God knows well who are his as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:19:
    “Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.”

    It is not a congregation of Christ that strives for the honor of this world and desires to be esteemed great in the eyes of the world…

    ~ AD 1520 – Sermons of MARTIN LUTHER – a theologian, Catholic priest, reformer and former Augustinian friar – Vol 3, Pg 340 [translated Lenker]

    NEXT: 2 Timothy 2 – STRONG Teachers and FALSE Preachers

  • The Apostles Creed 7 He shall Judge the Living and the Dead

    The Apostles Creed 7 He shall Judge the Living and the Dead

    The Apostles’ Creed — foundational to our Apostolic Christian faith

    Followers of Christ must always expect an attack against Scripture. Church doctrine is a line in the sand. - How will a leader or council of leaders choose what the Church will teach?
    I BELIEVE or WE BELIEVE IN:

    The Apostles’ Creed

    We believe JESUS will JUDGE the living and the dead.

    The Quick and the Dead

    Death becomes a more serious matter IF WE consider an inevitable after-life of our lifeless flesh and blood and in a prepared place of our created soul.

    This failing flesh, weakening sinews, crumbling of bones, flow through our heart and quickness of brain will not endure…

    nor will the very breath of our brief mortal life.

    And yet.. this created soul will remain…

    What then?

    Redemption OR Judgment?

    Structure of Christian CREEDS

    Here’s a brief outline of the fundamental objects of our faith found in The Creed:

    1. God
    2. Jesus Christ
    3. the Holy Spirit
      • and the Virgin Mary
    4. Jesus was crucified
      • and was buried
    5. He rose from the dead
    6. He ascended to heaven
    7. Siteth at the right hand of the Father (ye olde English)
    8. Whence He cometh to judge the living and the dead
    9. more…

    source: apostles-creed.org

    The Apostles Creed

    We believe Jesus will judge the living and the dead

    During His incarnation as the Son of Man and prior to His crucifixion Jesus had confessed:

    ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν

    “I and the Father are [*] one.”

    * One in substance, one and the same.

    John 10:30 LSB

    As Scripture states:

    GOD IS ONE IN ESSENCE,

    and as the Gospel reveals,

    THREE IN PERSON.

    More on Trinity from R.C. Sproul 

    In our last look at the Apostles' Creed we reminded you of these Scriptures:

    So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them,
    was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

    Gospel of Mark 16:19 ESV


    From the Olde English of the King James Version of the Creed:

    and sitteth at the right hande of the father: and he shall come again with glory, to judge both the quicke and the dead.

    The Book of Common Prayer – 1549

    Quicken me

    It’s an olde concept (so to speak) found mostly in the Psalms.

    My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

    Psalm 119:25 KJV

    Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.

    Psalm 119:156 KJV

    Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.

    Psalm 119:11 KJV 

    From the Hebrew:

    to live – ḥāyâ – חָיָה

    But more importantly in the Apostles’ Creed:

    to revive, be quickened

    • from sickness
    • from discouragement
    • from faintness
    • from death.
    The Apostle Paul helps us with this look at the judgment of the quick and the dead:

    And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,

    he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

    Paul’s epistle to the Romans 8:10-11 KJV

    He raises the dead! (that is, quickeneth)

    We know it and recognize the the Apostles borrow this from the Gospel of what Christ has taught during His incarnation.

    from the Greek [ζωοποιέω] it more specifically means:

    • to produce alive, begat or bear living young
    • to cause to live, make alive, give life

    and as Jesus used it in a parable pointing to death:

    • of seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing

    For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

    Gospel of John 5:21 KJV

    Think of the implication of this to a mortal like us as we look toward the dust.

    An the Lord Jesus assures the faithful:

    It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: 

    and you believers with ears to hear, listen to this:

    the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

    Gospel of John 6:63 KJV – the word of Jesus, the son of Man and Son of God

    from Christ to the Apostles to Christian Creeds

    The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus — a worldly cosmopolitan city with the temple of the Greek goddess Artemis (the goddess Diana of the Romans) — in about AD 60, quoting the Prophets:

    “Awake, you who sleep,
    Arise from the dead,
    And Christ will give you light.”

    See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

    Ephesisans 5:14b-16 NKJV

    And the risen Christ speaks a warning against turning back from sins and heresies leading to hell, which had seduced many of the Ephesian ‘christians‘:

    “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

    Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:5 NKJV

    Their great falling from grace in Ephesus having taken place in the AD 90’s, a mere three decades after the Apostle Paul had pastored their church.

    The historical record of the Church beyond the first century AD points to both firm doctrine and similar falling away from Christ.

    Augustine of Hippo on the Apostles’ Creed 

    Born: AD 354, Augustine lived an early 'willfully, decadent, pagan life' in Carthage, even taking a mistress who bore him a bastard son.

    Source: The Confessions of St. Augustine, Rosalie DeRosset – intro

    In Carthage, Augustine’s knowledge.. he admits, made him, “swollen up with vanity” (Bk 3, chap. 6). — probably made him prey for the Manichean religion. The chief characteristic of this sect was Gnosticism, an extreme dualism that claimed evil and good as equal.

    ibid. pp 13-14 

    In just four centuries heresies had encompassed and seeped into the churches. Later after after St. Augustine and the fall of Rome, considerable idolatry and various heresies would invade the Catholic Church and later after Luther, the Protestant Church.

    READ what Augustine later taught about THE APOSTLES’ CREED:

    The Bishop’s text here is taken from the Gospel of Matthew 25:

    “Thence He shall come to judge the quick and dead.”

    The quick, who shall be alive and remain;

    the dead, who shall have gone before.

    It may also be understood thus: The living, the just; the dead, the unjust.

    For He judges both, rendering unto each his own.

    To the just He will say in the judgment, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” For this prepare yourselves, for these things hope, for this live, and so live, for this believe, for this be baptized, that it may be said to you, “Come ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

    To them on the left hand, what?

    “Go into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

    Thus will they be judged by Christ, the quick and the dead.

    We have spoken of Christ’s first nativity, which is without time;

    spoken of the other in the fullness of time,

    Christ’s nativity of the Virgin; spoken of the passion of Christ; spoken of the coming of Christ to judgment.

    The whole is spoken, that was to be spoken of Christ, God’s Only Son, our Lord. But not yet is the Trinity perfect.

    Source: BibleHub.org –

    “Thence He Shall Come to Judge the Quick and Dead. …

    Next: A second glace at The Holy Spirit

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

  • 5 Minutes in Church History

    5 Minutes in Church History

    As one interested in some details of history rarely revealed in our usual history books, I’m trying to post a regular podcast that began in August, 2013.  (We haven’t missed too many history lessons.)

    5 Minutes in Church History – Stephen Nichols 

    Check it out.  Roger Harned 

    Here is the archive of 5 Minutes in Church History TOPICS:

    Let us know what you think.  Please COMMENT & Share your Christian Social Witness of http://talkofJesus.com