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Tag: hebrews

  • christianity-lite Doctrines of the Christ-less Era

    christianity-lite Doctrines of the Christ-less Era

    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?
    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
    The Holy Bible - 1611 King James Version cover

    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.

    So the A.D. 1950's apparently were not yet a time when Christians walked away from God's HOLY BIBLE.

    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. 

    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.

    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?

    Source for most: Year 1960 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History
    • 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?

    Doctrine - a line in the sand Creeds, Catechisms, Confessions & Christ – What do you believe?

    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

    *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.

    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.
        1. Just call Him KING; NEVER Prophet or Priest, which would separate HIM from the multitudes of the world WE seek to gather. AND remember,
        2. 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).
        3. 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 - the marketing of jesus by the church in 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.. 

    (although some have intentionally smudged scripture by their own rewording).

    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.

    Bible and milk? for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. Hebrews 5:13

    Lord OR just another king of culture?

    Let the church of these last days of a Common Era hear the prophesy of John the Baptist:

    “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

    Do you really believe christianity-lite? Doctrine for a christ-less Common Era christianity-lite typically erases the lines where Scripture and doctrine holding to what is written.
  • When HE takes Vengeance

    When HE takes Vengeance

    DOES THE FIRE OF GOD’S ANGER BURN WITH VENGEANCE?

    Paradise on fire – Idolatry consumed!

    Remember the lyric of lament over a lost love?

    Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus?
    You’ve got to help me make a stand
    You’ve just got to see me through another day
    My body’s aching and my time is at hand
    And I won’t make it any other way    ..

    Source:
    I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

    You shall not make idols or any image of things that are in the heavens above or that are upon the earth or that are in the waters under the earth.

    Exodus 20:4 New Catholic Bible

    Of course FIRE and RAIN are elements of the 12 idolatrous signs of the zodiac,

    even as love of a friend, family member or the EARTH or AIR may easily become your WORSHIP of idols.

    fire, air, earth water - idols of the 12 zodiac signs of false religions

    So Those were the days, my friend, of Paradise

    We SANG of them in the paradise lost of our memories. In the year of our Lord 1970, half a century ago – a time of imagined idolatrous paradise where one might honeymoon in Hawaii with the Eve or your dreams or perhaps worship each other’s nakedness in the mind-altering smoke of your California dreamin.

    How we all sought the peace on earth of friends with benefits..

    And that by the children of Jesus raised in the Commandments by the family of the Church — prodigal children wandering into a paradise lost of our own making.

    WE KNOW THE STORIES OF SCRIPTURE,

    Yet we try God’s patience

    And fail to TEACH OUR CHILDREN WELL in the Commandments and Praises, the Proverbs and Gospel

    of the HOLY BIBLE of the LORD God of our cultural prodigal witness!

    The Imagery of Apocalypse

    WE know it. Yet we quickly attribute God’s vengeance to ACTS of man-made cause.

    What more idolatrous treason against the Creator of Heaven and Earth can you imagine than to attribute apocalypse to ‘mother nature’ and to ‘humankind’?

    WHY do we so easily dismiss GOD’s warning of His vengeance against SIN and SINNERS (who we have become as we now wallow in the muddied cultures of self-worship and karma of the ashes of their phoenix fallen).

    .. angels .. he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

    Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones..

    Woe to them..

    excerpt from the letter of Jude, warning of ‘ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. – v.4b

    A Repeated Warning behind the Headline

    WE can ‘talk of’ KING JESUS all we want but best not dwell on the glory of grace without heeding the warnings of Christ our Lord.

    Recognize the signs of false news which does NOT seek the TRUTH of God or acknowledge the LORD’s story of vengeance against SIN and justification ONLY in Christ. 

    Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—

.. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

“Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

    The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ from Luke 17:

    Deseret News
    ‘Apocalyptic’ Maui wildfires death toll reaches 80, making it the deadliest natural disaster in Hawaii — see the latest updates

    Sat, August 12, 2023 at 1:16 PM EDT

    TWO Pictures of Maui including our COVER PHOTO TODAY:

    NOTE warnings IGNORED as you read FACTS

    from the story of JULY 12 in A.D. 2019

    • thousands were ordered evacuated,
    • it was unclear how many people fled the west Maui coastal communities of Maalaea and Kihei.
    • three shelters housed about 500 people
    • The Maui High School housed about 200 cats and dogs moved from a local animal shelter

    Have you NOT READ?

    • He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
    • “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
    • And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

    Vengeance is Mine!

    Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
    for the time when their foot shall slip;
    for the day of their calamity is at hand,
    and their doom comes swiftly.’

    Deuteronomy 32:35 ESV

    ESV Quotes on Vengeance

Hebrews 10: NEW CATHOLIC BIBLE


Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

    28 A man making void the law of Moses, dieth without any mercy under two or three witnesses:

    29 How much more, do you think he deserveth worse punishments, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath esteemed the blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and hath offered an affront to the Spirit of grace?

    30 For we know him that hath said: Vengeance belongeth to me, and I will repay. And again: The Lord shall judge his people.

    31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

    "so great a cloud of witnesses -Exhortation from Hebrews 12:1-2 - SHAKEN! from a troubled 2020 election to troubled times: Joe Biden Presidential Oath of Office sworn on Douay-Rheims Bible (1899) of his Roman Catholic faith

    “Vengeance is mine; I will repay,”
    and
    “The Lord will judge his people.”
    31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

    Hebrews 10:30b-31 New Catholic Bible
  • Epistle from the Council of Jerusalem – Acts 15:20

    Epistle from the Council of Jerusalem – Acts 15:20

    The Council of Jerusalem has come to a decision. They will write an epistle of instruction to the gentile churches.

    Let's focus for a moment on a HOT TOPIC of A.D. 50 on which future missions of the apostles hinged.

(HOW will JEWS worship with other CULTURES?)

Church leaders ANSWERED with an EPISTLE from their Council in Jerusalem.

    ἐπιστολή – a written message: — epistle, letter

    So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle: G1992

    Acts of the Apostles 15:30, King James Version

    WHAT DO WE DO WHEN AS SOON AS WE MAKE AN IMPORTANT DECISION IMPACTING EVERYONE?

    We send out an epistle or letter or message or broadcast.

    AND like any council with authority this council of Church leaders in Jerusalem go back to their followers personally as well. These apostles of the gospel will also send their epistle or letter of instruction with other trusted messengers to churches they cannot encourage personally.

    We're getting a little ahead of today's work of the Jerusalem Council, but I thought it important to DEFINE our term and impact of today's meeting of the Apostles in Jerusalem.

    Lexicon :: Strong’s G1992 – epistolē

    – From ἐπιστέλλω (G1989) epistellō –

    Outline of Biblical Usage

    • to send one a message, command
    • to write a letter
    • to enjoin by letter, to write instructions

    Christians familiar with traditional readings of Scripture from the King James Version recognize an introduction like:

    “A reading from the Epistle of Paul to the Romans.”

    The cover letter pictured is an actual parchment of Romans 1:1-7

    Acts of the Apostles 15:30 [above] reads ‘epistle‘ in the KJV.

    But most Bibles simply translate it ‘letter.’

    You may have seen a similar epistle in Acts 9 where Luke records a previous ‘official letter’ also sent with Paul (aka at that time Saul of Tarsus) from Jerusalem.

    Damascus Road: Witness into all the World
    But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
    – Acts of the Apostles 9:1-2 ESV

    Christians familiar with the epistles or letters of the New Testament (after Acts) see epistles addressed to an individual church, i.e. Corinth, Ephesus, where these letters were also circulated to churches throughout and beyond those regions.

    However this important earlier letter from the Council at Jerusalem was sent to as many churches as possible. And the Apostles gathered in Jerusalem specifically address Gentiles as participants and members.

    SO It could have, but was not, named:

    The Epistle of the Council of Jerusalem,

    TO the Church at Antioch Syria (where it is to be sent) OR due to apostles sent out into all the world:

    ‘TO the churches of the Gentile Nations.’

    Leaders of the Christians in Antioch had requested clarification from the Apostles and leaders of the church in Jerusalem. Most Hellenist or Greek church members were Gentiles rather than Jews of the Diaspora.

    Acts 15 – Conclusion of Pastor James

    Truth for Gentiles who turn to God
    Previously, from ACTS 15:6-19

    Do not trouble those turning to God

    .. we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
    but should write to them
    to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

    Acts 15:19b-20 ESV

    Don’t cause trouble. Do not annoy. Do not harass. 

    You get the idea; this is what Saul of Tarsus had planned to do in Damascus with the authority of the Jewish Council to persecute the converted.

    ἐπιστρέφω – Lexicon :: Strong’s G1994 – epistrephō

    transitively, a. to turn to the worship of the true God, 
b. to cause to return, to bring back; figuratively, to the love and obedience of God ..

    Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God [theos] from among the Gentiles ἔθνος [ethnos].

    YES, God chose the Jews

    BUT why would we want to keep those Gentiles whom the Lord our God has drawn through Christ?

    AND WHY add requirements which would hinder Gentiles from turning to God?

    SO James adjudicates the matter also addressing the concerns of the Jews.

    EXCEPT these practices of Jewish Law

    Here, James adds a requirement for the Gentiles but it is NOT circumcision.
    • abstain from 
      • the things polluted by idols
      • sexual immorality
      • what has been strangled
      • [from] blood

    21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

    Epistle of James greeting of 1:1 map major Jewish cities of Roman Empire - Rome Antioch Damascas Jerusalem Alexandria
    James .. To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.

    A Map [above] shows first century Jewish cities of the Roman Empire to which James refers in an epistle he authored most likely during Paul’s first missionary journey just prior to the Council at Jerusalem.

    As you can see, much more communication will be required to cover so many Hellenist cities with Jewish and Christian worshipers.

    Acts 15:20 King James Version — But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

    Scriptural (Old Testament) Reasons for James’ exceptions

    Pollutions of idols

    – Gen 35:2; Exo 20:3-5,23; Exo 34:15,16; Num 25:2; Psa 106:37-39; Eze 20:30,31;

    “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go whoring after their detestable things? When you present your gifts and offer up your children in fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I *be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not *be inquired of by you.

    Ezra 20:30-31 KJV – *note: Lexicon :: Strong’s H1875 – dāraš
    Fornication – πορνεία – Lexicon :: Strong’s G4202 – porneia –
    • illicit sexual intercourse
      • adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
      • sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
      • sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11-12
    • metaph. the worship of idols
      • of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols

    The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of *whoredoms and children of *whoredoms: for the land hath committed great *whoredom, departing from the LORD.

    Hosea 1:2 KJV note: *Lexicon :: Strong’s H2183 – zᵊnûnîm
    from Lexicon :: Strong’s H2181 – zānâ – A primitive root [highly-fed and therefore wanton]
    Things Strangled – πνικτός pniktós, pnik-tos’

    from G4155; throttled, i.e. (neuter concretely) an animal choked to death (not bled):—strangled.

    and Blood – αἵματος – αἷμα Lexicon :: Strong’s G129 – haima of man or animals
     καὶ τοῦ αἵματος - "from what has been strangled, and from blood." - ESV is best understood in the context of Leviticus, Book of the Priests, which provides some detail about Sacrifices to God, which Christ became by His own Blood, the flesh of our Lord Jesus pierced for our transgressions.
    The Sacrifice of Blood
    Leviticus 17: ESV

    וַיִּקְרָא (Leviticus) 17 :: Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

    וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹֽר׃

    1. And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

    10 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.

    For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls,
    for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

    Leviticus 17:11 ESV

    12 Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.

    13 “Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.

    For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.

    Leviticus 17:14 ESV

    Letter from the Council

    Acts 15:

    22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas…

    To Be Continued… 

    .. with the text of their Epistle authorizing apostles for another mission to the Gentiles.