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christianity-lite Doctrines of the Christ-less Era
Are christian pulpits erasing Christ’s Biblical line of DOCTRINE?

a Christ-less Church of the Common Era

JESUS Christ was the SON worthy of Christians who once worshiped like this:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
First Letter of the Apostle Peter 1:3-5 Legacy Standard Bible
- HOW OFTEN DO YOU HEAR ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’ preached from the pulpit of your Common Era church?
- IS SCRIPTURE INSCRIBED on the doorposts and gates of YOUR COMMON ERA CHURCH?
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃ דְּבָרִים

(Deuteronomy) 6 :4

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart..
Deuteronomy 6:5-6 ESV

And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
From the LAW of Moses – Deuteronomy 6:9 King James Version

a HOLY Gospel or a Common Era Jesus?

SOMETHING CHANGED, but I’m not certain when.

In the year of our Lord 1959, I joined our local Christian church and the Pastor presented me with a Revised Standard Version of the HOLY BIBLE, which our membership class had studied beginning with the first five books of the Law in addition to discussing key verses from the New Testament.
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So the A.D. 1950's apparently were not yet a time when Christians walked away from God's HOLY BIBLE.
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As children of Christian parents we were expected to become part of our local church and community. Some did so begrudgingly and others of us out of duty to family. What else could we do? And everyone I knew seemed to ‘go to church’ one place or another.

We referred to God and Jesus as ‘Lord,’ addressed adults as ‘Mister‘ or ‘Missus‘ [so and so] or if we didn’t know them sir or ma’am.

Our pastor and preacher was to be addressed as, Reverend, just like most of our parents addressed him. (Even children understood what reverend meant as to respect due to this man and his piety associated with God’s leadership of our church.)

Before the Common Era

SOMETHING CHANGED during the 1960’s, continued to change into the 70’s and yet more beyond the close of the 20th century.

Many churches still EXPECTED Christians to stand in acknowledgment of GOD’s HOLY Word as WE bowed in silence to hear proclaimed:

“THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO .. [Matthew, Mark, Luke or John],”

and then the Holy Scripture was read.
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christianity-lite churches of 2023 of the Common Era can hardly imagine it!

Some imagined it to have been liturgical routine rather than intended due reverence for the HOLINESS of God's Very Word.
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The dichotomy of holiness as separation of GOD ABOVE ALL and JESUS CHRIST as LORD of ALL seemed to blur into a common division from contemporary culture.

Christians loved their Christ of Christmas and Easter, while ALL the world (mostly US) awaited a dismissal of JESUS as just another sweet lord of some days of a future passed.

A.D. 1960 – Do you remember when?
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Source for most: Year 1960 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History
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- JFK was elected the first Roman Catholic President of the U.S.
- The average family income was $5,600
- and a new house cost $16,500.
- The starting salary for a teacher was $5,135. It was $4,400 for a police officer and $9,400 for an engineer.
- A slice of pizza cost 15 cents, a McDonald’s hamburger was also 15 cents, and candy bars were five cents apiece.
- The minimum wage was $1.00, (family members no min. I made .50/hr. in the 60’s)
- Farmers made up 8.3% of the U.S. labor force.. about 3,711,000 American farms.. about 303 acres apiece.
- Over 90% of American households had at least one TV,
  - and about 65% of Americans were churchgoers.
- The FDA approved the world’s first commercially produced birth control pill.
  - The Roman Catholic Church opposed its use (even by married couples)
  - Protestant churches and other religions still expected NO SEX before marriage and discouraged any divorce.
Why did christians erase the LINES of Scripture?

Churches had to re-imagine JESUS for a post-Christian world of members who no longer wanted to GO TO CHURCH.

Christians of OUR future world will embrace a Jesus Christ SUPERSTAR along side our flawed antagonist apostle Judas who seemed to be just as I am. WE are the world, too.

Among our [*] secular friends WE continued to claim that WE are ‘believers,’ BUT we no longer liked to be identified as MEMBERS of the [*] BODY of CHRIST.

a few definitions erased and eroded
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*SACRED [now archaic in the Common Era] once meant separated from the common sin and evil of the world in order to remain HOLY [on GOD's side of good and evil] and used in 700+ verses in the HOLY BIBLE.

*SECULAR [also archaic to Common Era culturaly inclusive speech] pointed outward to a world separated from the SACRED by clear BIBLICAL LINES of DOCTRINE. 

The Body of Christ and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ point to HOLINESS only attainable through Christ as symbolized in HOLY COMMUNION.
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So clearly defined Biblical church lines of religion blurred

AND antiquated doctrine retired and relegated into the annals of church history.

The Church of our Lord OR christians of the Common Era?
- HOW OFTEN DO YOU HEAR ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’ preached from the pulpit of your Common Era church?
  - Rarely, since in a post-Christian world HE is now a familiar pronoun for a more familiar jesus who embraces believers of every culture into gatherings for the anonomous ME.
- IS SCRIPTURE INSCRIBED on the doorposts and gates of YOUR COMMON ERA CHURCH?
  - god forbid! For holy means separated and WE are together.
  - Therefore the BIBLE bows down to OUR corporate vision to which WE must preach to include ALL the world for the love of our culturally correct Jesus.
    
    Just call Him KING; NEVER Prophet or Priest, which would separate HIM from the multitudes of the world WE seek to gather. AND remember,
    
    MOST books of the BIBLE are OFFENSIVE to seekers of other beliefs; consequently NO Scripture on the walls (or church building or worship screen up front).
    
    THE BIBLE HOLY? – Prophets, Priests and gods forbid!
christianity-lite

a graceful LIFE

RE-imagining jesus

for a culturally-correct

church of the Common Era

christianity-lite is weightless witness of Christ-less preaching to the Scripture-starved chaff of Common Era culture
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

In the context of Western culture and because of growing biblical illiteracy in our churches, the content has often been highly eroded. It has been made light and insubstantial, replaced by a set of self-focused interests.
David F Wells – GOD IN THE WHIRLWIND, p.188

The challenge of Teaching GOD’s Truth

SOMETHING CHANGED between the years of our Lord in centuries past and these last days of the Common Era.

God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Numbers 23:19 ESV

It wasn’t God.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8 ESV

And it was not Jesus Christ (re-branding HimSELF for a Common Era church).

“Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings..” the letter to the Hebrews continues in 13:9a.

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to the pastor Timothy 3:16-17 LSB

It wasn’t God’s HOLY BIBLE that changed..
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(although some have intentionally smudged scripture by their own rewording).
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COULD IT BE THE COMMON ERA CHURCH (members, not the building so much) THAT HAS CHANGED?

..it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Lord OR just another king of culture?
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Let the church of these last days of a Common Era hear the prophesy of John the Baptist:
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“And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals;
Gospel of Matthew 3:10-11b LSB
- DO YOU WORSHIP JESUS IN TRUTH AND WITH THE HUMILITY OF JOHN?
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
The GOSPEL of Matthew 7:21-23 Legacy Standard Bible

DOCTRINES of the COMMON ERA CHURCH – To Be Continued… God-willing
September 30, 2023
Lectures in the School of the Master
Acts 19: Paul Teaching in Ephesus

Powerful Preaching to powerless Christians

Previously, Luke tells us about Apollos leaving Ephesus as the Apostle Paul arrives and begins preaching to the Jews.

Two Schools of Thought in Ephesus
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The School of Our Master the Lord Jesus Christ is led by the lecturer Paul; known as the Apostle to the Gentiles and formerly known as Saul of Tarsus.

Picture this setting & scene in either the 1st century A.D. where it took place OR in a more Common Era scene in a University of this time:
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‘We haven’t heard from Paul in a while. I heard that he has been teaching in the School of Tyrannus. Is that so?‘

‘Let’s go over to the big lecture hall and see.‘

Paul has already encountered various schools of thought at several points on his missionary journeys. His Pharisaical School in Jerusalem had taught different doctrines than an exclusive School the Sadducees. So the renounced Jewish scholar comfortably challenged other beliefs and philosophies.

And just like back in Corinth Achaia, Paul must reconcile perceptions of Christ with the Greeks and Yeshua Messiah of the Jews to followers of The Way in Ephesus.

Now that he resides in this key city of Asia Minor where the Holy Spirit initially had prevented Paul from going, Paul will no doubt need to answer many questions about our Lord Jesus Christ.

AND let’s not overlook Paul’s perseverance during several months of Apostolic teaching in Ephesus that took place here which Luke covers in just a few summary verses.

A brief reminder:

Paul began his journey to Ephesus in ~A.D. 52 by land from the church in Antioch and will not return from this 2700 mile mission for about five years.

As is his general practice the Apostle first teaches the Good News of the Messiah Jesus to the Jews.

And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
Acts of the Apostles 19:8 ESV – Luke’s account of Paul upon arrival in Ephesus

The first three months

Twelve converted disciples join Paul, listening to the Gospel as the Apostle teaches fellow Jews how Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures as the Promised One. Many Jews believe during this time of Paul’s proclaiming Jesus in the synagogue and consequently follow The Way.

Yet like everywhere else, some remain immovable by truth or any other teaching than that which serves them.

But when some became stubborn

and continued in unbelief,

speaking evil of the Way before the congregation..
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[A familiar pattern of stiff-necked men standing firm on their shaky ground of unreasoned truth and false doctrine.]
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.. he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.
Acts of the Apostles 19:9
NOTE: Although this picture is NOT the School of Tyrannus, don't miss the significance of this School in the city of Ephesus as a university where men could gather to hear lecturers in order to learn and discuss their teachings.
~A.D. 53 – A.D. 54

Let’s look a root problem of unbelievers from the Greek root words Luke chooses translated from the NASB:

But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the [multitude]..
Acts 19:9a NASB20
- ἐσκληρύνοντο – to make hard, harden, metaph. to render obstinate, stubborn
- ἀπειθέω – apeitheō [Does any familiar English term come to mind?] –
  - to refuse or withhold belief
  - to refuse belief and obedience
  - not to comply with
Men APATHETIC to sound doctrine and truth of the Gospel may claim to be religious men. Stubborn and stiffnecked sinners TURNED AGAINST Christ’s Apostle of Good News and they will turn against YOU as well for your witness of JESUS Christ as your Lord.

Apparent apathy to Christ and disobedience to the very word of God go hand in hand.

“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life;
but the one who does not G544 [apeitheō] obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
Gospel of John 3:36

THREE MONTHS Paul had reasoned with the Ephesian Jews in his manner of quoting Scripture and applying the Old Covenant to their Messiah JESUS. A remnant is saved and follow. The rest will continue in their false faith for refusing to look up to the LORD from the wilderness of their refining.

The heart-hardened enemies of the Gospel murmur to the multitudes against the followers [disciples] of the Way, the Truth and the Life redeemed through Christ our Lord.

in the hall of Tyrannus

DAILY, from the fifth hour to the tenth (that is, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) according to some manuscripts

Lecture Hall

The lecture hall of Tyrannus is an important place of teaching Roman cultural context in a Roman community of the empire.

21st century believers may not understand the openness in a university-type forum from the teaching and disciples of Paul OR even the Lord Jesus. So in order to understand this PLACE of Paul’s CLASSROOM better we will examine it from the Greek which Luke records in just one of today’s three verses:

ὡς δέ τινες ἐσκληρύνοντο καὶ ἠπείθουν κακολογοῦντες τὴν ὁδὸν ἐνώπιον τοῦ πλήθους ἀποστὰς ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν ἀφώρισεν τοὺς μαθητάς καθ᾽ ἡμέραν διαλεγόμενος ἐν τῇ σχολῇ Τυράννου
Acts 19:9 Morphological Greek New Testament

scholē tyrannos

Τύραννος – tyrannos – A provincial form of the derivative of the base of κύριος (G2962)

Its base word and root Christians may recognize but have never considered in this context of first century A.D. controversy in witness to the Gospel in the Roman Empire.
- Tyrannus = “sovereign“
- kyrios – From kuros (supremacy)
It’s the ‘sovereign school’ OR School of the Sovereign.

Is Paul now teaching in the highest school, so to speak, in Ephesus, an environment we would understand to be a University?
- scholē – probably feminine of a presumed derivative of the alternate of G2192; properly, loitering (as a withholding of oneself from work) or leisure, i.e. (by implication) a “school” (as vacation from physical employment):—school.
OR

Does the SCHOOL NAME imply a particular Sovereign for whom it is named?

(And, let the hearer understand, Ephesus, like Jerusalem, Corinth or Rome itself has only ONE SOVEREIGN.)

But they cried out,

Away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King?

The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
Gospel of John 19:15 King James Version

κύριος – kyrios – Strong’s G2962 – masculine noun From kuros (supremacy)

Lord, Lordship:

properly an adjective, signifying “having power” (kuros) or “authority,” is used as a noun, variously translated in the NT, “‘Lord,’ ‘master,’ ‘Master,’ ‘owner,’ ‘Sir,’ a title of wide significance, occurring in each book of the NT save Titus and the Epistles of John. It is used
Vine’s Expository Dictionary

WHAT DID THE APOSTLE PAUL PREACH IN EPHESUS?

Luke does not say specifically in these four verses, but we must believe that in one form or other that the Apostle proclaims the Gospel, JESUS IS LORD.

Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord G2962 Jesus.
Acts of the Apostles 19:5 NASB20

Asia Minor

This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord G2962, both Jews and Greeks.
Acts 19:10 of the Apostle Paul in Ephesus

NEXT: Paul I know…
September 25, 2023
Doctrines of TRUTH in a Common Era of Lies
Introduction to the Common Era

WHEN did the Common Era Begin?

Was there an unexpected BIG BANG that exploded TRUTH into truths?

Did centuries of HISTORY defined by the word of Almighty GOD suddenly fall into a bottomless black hole of godless futility?

AND IF, in 2023 C.E. humankind could look back toward 2023 B.C.E.

Would the blurred timeline of History not continue to point toward Christ Jesus born into this common world of sin?

The Common Era (C.E.) continues to count from the year of our Lord (Anno Domini) even as the world of the Common Era continues to use the birth of Jesus Christ as a blurred line Before the Common Era (B.C.E.) of speculative scientific history.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

Doctrines of a Common Era christian
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Anyone who has read any of my doctrines previously proclaimed here on TalkofJESUS.com will realize the orthodoxy of my foundational teaching of ONE Truth from the HOLY BIBLE.
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I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
1st letter of the Apostle John 2:21, Legacy Standard Bible

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

1 John 2:22 LSB

YOU know the TRUTH.
Do some blur the LINE of God’s WRITTEN WORD preaching a redefined Jesus

into an acceptable vocabulary of teaching

in a COMMON ERA of corporate inclusiveness?

You know that WE do! For WE preach a King Jesus rarely mentioning Christ or the Cross. Certainly we lead with grace and subtle mention of sin. For our one-time only repentance of our past brings US privileges of the present AND a heaven of OUR creation.
Most pulpits NEVER mention the Prophets.

Certainly we FAIL TO WARN of likely persecution of Christ followers and ESPECIALLY the REJECTION of the Church BY YOUR neighbors, friends and biological family into which you were born in this COMMON ERA.

THEREFORE WE build our local church for the worldly of the Common Era

— WE seek multitudes of post-Christian era believers who would be easily led.

So WE the church invite them all into an enticing free love by a rebranded Jesus who saved every one of you simply by bringing you to church one Sunday.

What is Truth?
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τί ἐστιν ἀλήθεια  
~A.D. 30 - WHAT IS TRUTH is the dismissive hand-washing question of Pilate at the trial of Christ Jesus, the SON OF GOD who he found NOT guilty YET sentenced to death ON A CROSS for our sins.
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From the sin of Adam in a distant century Before Christ until the dark day Pilate and the unrepentant sinful elect killed the sinless Son of Man on a Roman Cross —

GOD IS!

From the year of our Lord 30 until today in 2023 of the Common Era —

TRUTH is continually redefined by those who know that WE ARE SINNERS, yet deny the Sacrifice of Christ for our sins and REFUSE TO REPENT.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

God is truth and anti-Christ’s will always question God-given TRUTH.

Let the faithful follower of JESUS beware — for the CHURCH of the COMMON ERA has intentionally re-branded JESUS by answering questions of the tempter with an acceptable Gospel of what JESUS did NOT really say.

The ‘EVILution’ of the post-Christian church

Several years back I listened to a renowned English theologian preach against the most unlikely pseudo-science of atheist philosophers tirelessly chipping away at the lexicon of God’s long-accepted truth with Darwinist theory continually tweaking and altering the evolution of man and origin of the cosmos.

Rather than using our Americanized pronunciation this British scholar appropriately pronounced the slow progressive rebellion of their humanist-god origin from sudden nothing into a severely-slow shaping of reality from amoebas and apes as “EVILUTION.”

What could be more evil than turning from God and denying the glory of God within our sight and grasp — even for the briefest of mortal times until the inevitable DEATH of our flesh and JUDGMENT of our soul?

One might think that 21st c. Christians of this pseudo-scientific Common Era need not be concerned with such things.

Yet the NOT SO GOOD gospel of these last days suggests that the pulpits and teaching of many ‘christian‘ churches have embraced the ‘EVILution’ of the Common Era, forsaking mention of Christ and fleeing the refining fire of TRUTH given succinctly through Scripture.

In these Last Days of the Common Era

THEREFORE, my fellow follower of the Lord Jesus Christ,

LET US take up THE BOOK once more as we ascend the crumbling wall of christian witness

Recognizing the enemy at our gate

and hearing the DOCTRINES of the enemy within

urging US to open the gates of peace when there is no peace,

PREACHING tolerance in the casual jeans

of the COMMON ERA deception and rejection

of JESUS CHRIST our ONLY Lord and Savior.

a SERIES to weigh and measure God’s Truth

COMMENT BELOW & TELL ME

WHAT DOCTRINAL BLURRING OF THE LINE

FROM the A.D. 1st-20th centuries

TO this 21st century of the COMMON ERA

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DEFINE?
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NEXT:

Due to LABOR DAY in this 'one nation under God' once having been a STARTING line for POLITICIANS running for office,  
I suppose that WE THE PEOPLE of Jesus and the US might want to begin there on MONDAY, God-willing.

AND Following that, an INTRODUCTORY POST of this SERIES.

Roger
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September 2, 2023