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Tag: holy

Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
Gospel of John 3:8 – Jesus Christ teaching on the Holy Spirit
Introducing the Third Person of the Trinity:
Acts 1:
Ascension of the Lord Jesus
The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!
The Holy Ghost in Acts – KJV
ACTS in the Spirit
Introducing the Third Person of the Trinity:

Acts 1:

Luke tells us that his first book, the Gospel, was about Jesus Christ and that this second account, Acts, will be about what Jesus accomplished through the Apostles AFTER His ascension into heaven.

We look for the actors (so to speak) who Luke records doing the crucial early works of the Church. Peter immediately comes to mind as well as Paul.

What most Christians may have missed in Luke’s chronicles of the first three decades of Church history is that mysterious Person we first met in the Gospels, the ungraspable Image of God in the Holy Spirit.

Luke tells us that during forty days after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many (in addition to the Apostles).

4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, …

Here, mentioning the Father and the Person of the Son, Luke records the words of Jesus to the Apostles as they must have testified to our author of Acts:

“Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water,

but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 1:4b NASB
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God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – Gospel of John 4:24 ESV

Baptism

And I remind us that baptism [baptizō] ‘produces a permanent change.‘

The Apostles and others are about to be overwhelmed by a permanent change of the Spirit, a baptism receiving the third Person of God, the Holy Spirit. Luke records this cleansing baptism like no other, more that a baptism of water for repentance only.

Ascension of the Lord Jesus

The palpable tension of the Apostle’s encounters with the risen Christ, their beloved friend and Master which concluded Luke’s Gospel now builds once again. Luke records what happens next with this risen Jesus (who they could touch, who shared bread and wine with the Eleven), even the same Jesus who now continued to teach them more for the past forty days.

Christ Jesus again establishes the providence and authority of the Person of God the Father.

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Acts 1:7 CSB

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses^G3144 ..
Acts of the Apostles 1:8a NASB20

μάρτυς – Witness – (to the ACTS which Luke is about to unfold)
- martys [gk.] [Strong’s 3144] Definition:
- a witness
  1. in a legal sense
  2. an historical sense
    
    one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
  3. in an ethical sense
    
    those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death
Luke is witness through the Apostles not only of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, but a convincing witness to the Holy Spirit as Luke records God’s great acts of power only possible by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.
Roger@talkofJESUS.com

Jesus was taken up as the Apostles watched!

Luke records that this Son of Man, risen in flesh and blood from the grave, had been with them — forty days — and then powerfully and mysteriously Jesus rises into the clouds as they look on (actually, up) in awe!

The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!

How would your have reacted to this powerful, yet unexplainable rising of the Lord Jesus into the clouds?

You may find Luke’s account from the King James Version of the Bible helpful in describing your FEAR and AWE of this historical event which also includes angels of God.

The Holy Ghost in Acts – KJV

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

Luke records what fear and expectation Jesus planted in their hearts prior to the Lord’s ascension. Jesus compares this power with what they had received from John the Baptist.

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 1:5 KJV – Jesus promising the Apostles a baptism of the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)

ἁγίου πνεύματος – hagios pneuma – the Holy Ghost

Unless you have a question for me by way of comment, we cannot get into some of the more mysterious depths of discussion about that which we cannot see and understand even less, the Person of the Holy Ghost. For to speak of the Spirit yields little fruit in the hearts of those ‘christians’ who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.

So allow me to define BOTH GREEK WORDS and you can take it from there.

hagios – HOLY
- from ἅγος hágos (an awful thing) (compare G53, G2282); sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):—(most) holy (one, thing), saint.
pneuma – spirit

KJV translate this as:

GHOST
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(May I just add that our imagery of the Holy Spirit descending sometimes obscures the awesome power of the third Person of the Trinity, that is, the Holy Ghost.)

READ just some of these definitions from Strong's G4151 for Pneuma below:
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Outline of Biblical Usage
1. the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
  1. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit)
  2. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”)
  3. never referred to as a depersonalised force
2. the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
  1. the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
  2. the soul
3. a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
  1. a life giving spirit
  2. a human soul that has left the body
  3. a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
    
    used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
    
    the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
4. the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
  1. the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
5. a movement of air (a gentle blast)
  1. of the wind, hence the wind itself
  2. breath of nostrils or mouth
ACTS in the Spirit

Luke will have much more to say about this mysterious Person of the Trinity and crucial character in his historical account of Acts.
- And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
  - Acts 4:31
And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Acts 5:32
- And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us
  - Acts 15:8
- And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
  - Acts 19:6
Although contemporary ‘christianity‘ characterizes the Holy Ghost less fearfully, in order to see his emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit let’s close Luke’s AWE–filled [awesome] introduction to ACTS from the KJV:
- Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts 2:38
to be continued..

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
September 21, 2021
Did God really say..? – DOCTRINE of the BIBLE – 2
Did God really say ‘ALL SCRIPTURE?‘

What DOCTRINES do you choose?

Do you choose what God said selectively from among scriptures?

I am a theologian; that is, I study God. Yet how? And where do I seek answers about God? Which books of the Bible? What verses?

Who should I believe in my choices about the Doctrine of Scripture?
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You won't want to miss some definitions and important church history in Part 1 linked below 
or our first doctrinal post on the holiness of God.
{These links may also be found in the talkofJESUS.com menu & will open in a new tab.}
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Introduction to Doctrine of the Bible – Part 2:

Questions about God

Imagine for a moment that YOU are the only man (adam) or woman, if you will.

I suppose the best place to meet the LORD is in Paradise — and here in the HOLY Presence of The Other, YOU are a man WITHOUT SIN!

Of course you recognize from Genesis in the LAW of Moses this Paradise you have never seen. Here you stand in Eden in the Presence of the LORD!

Observe this illustrative truth from the Holy Bible:

The LORD GOD is HOLY and until MAN (adam) sins, so were we.

Therefore we began this series with the Doctrine of the Holiness of God.

So here you imagine yourself — in Eden – walking with the Holy Lord God.

In the beginning, The LAW

(Do you believe the entire Creation narrative of Moses?)

אַף כִּֽי־אָמַר אֱלֹהִים

“Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’? ”
Genesis 3:1b CSB

Of course most of us will recognize what seems to be a legitimate question from near the beginning of the Bible when the serpent hissed against the LORD, ‘Did God really say..’

Yes, it would have been a legitimate question IF the questioner had not already known the TRUTH of the command of the LORD God. But Scripture records Satan’s cunning in Genesis . (He knew, but twisted truth.)

Sin is turning away from God

YOU questioned God’s truth.

Temptation of Eve

On behalf of all mankind for perpetuity, YOU crossed the line of obeying God’s commands.

Here you now wander into the darkness beyond Paradise .. continually asking, ‘DID GOD REALLY SAY..?’

And do not think, my fellow fallen saint, that you will choose what is TRUE without seeking the Lord.

Do not ask the one who hisses against Jesus Christ, any tempter who doubts what God said, since the LORD’s command to obey is what they will not do.

SO WHERE DO WE FIND TRUTH?

DOCTRINE – What do you believe?

Do you choose what God said?

Where do you draw your line in the sand about believing the Doctrines of the Bible?
Some preachers don’t believe in Satan or some truths about Christ. (What else won’t they believe from Holy Scripture?)
Roger@talkofJesus.com

ALL of these TRUTHS are witnessed in Scripture. They give mortals many glances at Paradise and eternal life with the LORD God.

You just imagined yourself to be in the Presence of the Lord in Eden on behalf of the generations, but you crossed the line and wandered into the darkness of sin.

O man! I have asked myself, “Did God really say? Then I made excuses to the LORD for my sin.”

What is the ONLY BOOK where one made in the image of God can discern the TRUE words of WHAT GOD HAS SAID?

The HOLY Bible
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To be continued...
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NEXT: More in Doctrine of the Bible – 3
July 10, 2021
The BIBLE is HOLY
HOLY Scripture

“ALL scripture is inspired by God.. !
All scripture is given by inspiration of God..
All Scripture is breathed out by God..
All Scripture is God-breathed..
2 Timothy 3:16a

How does God communicate with man?

The Doctrine of Scripture or the Doctrine of the Bible stakes claim to all that is HOLY in the writings of God.
- Does Scripture have an ‘other’ holiness?
- Is the Word of God in writing true?
What is Holy?

We began this series on Doctrine appropriately with God’s Holiness.

Doctrine – GOD IS HOLY

“God is not a man, that He would lie,
Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind..

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God! Other! Separate of man and above all His creation.

God is God and we are not.

Is the Bible Holy?

Christians call it, “THE HOLY BIBLE,” but what does that mean?

Now I ask you, my fellow believer and follower of Christ Jesus,

What authority should the Bible have in the lives of disciples of the true doctrines of God?

We have already defined holiness as separate, apart, and therefore sacred and as God speaks, an awful thing! Now I must define our commonly used terms addressing the holiness of God’s written word, the Bible or Scripture.

What is Scripture?

“It is written..” – כָּתַב

The word means “writing.”

In the Old Testament it occurs in the King James Version only once, “the scripture of truth,” in Da 10:21, where it is more correctly rendered in the Revised Version (British and American), “the writing of truth.” The reference is not to Holy Scripture, but to the book in which are inscribed God’s purposes.

In the New Testament, “scripture” and “scriptures” stand regularly for the Old Testament sacred books regarded as “inspired” (2Ti 3:16), “the oracles of God” (Ro 3:2).
International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

And in each and every book of the Bible we must hold sacred that:
- IF ‘it is written’ as God’s spoken word,
- THEN we must regard it as truth – God’s truth revealed in the written word.
כְּתָב

אֲבָל֙ אַגִּ֣יד לְךָ֔ אֶת־הָרָשׁ֥וּם בִּכְתָ֖ב אֱמֶ֑ת וְאֵ֨ין אֶחָ֜ד מִתְחַזֵּ֤ק עִמִּי֙ עַל־אֵ֔לֶּה כִּ֥י אִם־מִיכָאֵ֖ל שַׂרְכֶֽם׃ פ
Daniel 10:21 WLC

You’ve often read scripture such as:
- .. as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses..
- .. it is written in the Book of Jashar..
- “Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
- “It is written in the Prophets..
- “For it is written in the book of Psalms..
OR of specific scriptures.

.. as it is written:
“THERE IS NO RIGHTEOUS PERSON, NOT EVEN ONE..
Romans 3:10 NASB20 referring to verses in the Psalms
- Scripture is the written truth of God revealed to man.
The Jews chosen by the LORD God lived by Scripture (or at least they were called to live by the word of God through the Law and the Prophets).

“It is written..” – γράφω

The first mention of Scripture in the Gospels of the New Testament is by the Person of Christ Jesus!

After the Lord had been in the wilderness for forty days, the Messiah Jesus answers Satan’s temptation by applying Scripture written from the wilderness testing of Moses and Israel.

Matthew 4:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But He answered and said, “It is written:
γράφω – graphō

‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”
Gospel of Matthew 4:4 NASB

(Do you think Christians might want to take heed to how Jesus replies to the temptation of Satan in the wilderness?) ‘MAN SHALL LIVE ON EVERY WORD THAT COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD..’

JESUS REITERATES THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE!
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So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
- Deuteronomy 8:3 
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The New Testament on Scripture

γραφή – graphē

a writing, thing written
the Scripture, used to denote either the book itself, or its contents
a certain portion or section of the Holy Scripture

The KJV translates Strong’s G1124 in the following manner: scripture (51x). from G1125; a document, γράφω – graphō [as we have defined above ‘it is written’ ] which occurs 192 times in 181 verses in the mgnt Greek.
A few examples of holy scripture
- Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. – Luke 24:45
- You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me; and yet you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.– John 5:39-40
- For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. –Romans 15:4
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB20

INSPIRED BY GOD! ALL Scripture (not just a verse or two to our liking). Scripture is HOLY, writings other than the ordinary books not spoken by God — books not written by the LORD speaking to a man.

The BIBLE is HOLY!

What is the Bible?

DOCTRINE – What do you believe?

Again, the necessity of defining what ANYONE means where referring to “THE BIBLE.”

NOT ALL BIBLE’s are alike.

First, What is NOT the Bible

(AND therefore, NOT the HOLY Word of GOD.)
- The Quran is not the Bible.
- The Book of Mormon is not the Bible. [See: Cult Resources]
- The Complete Tanakh (*with its 24 Hebrew books) is an incomplete Bible.
  - *The 24 Hebrew books are the same as the 39 Books of the Old Testament; the difference is in the way they are divided.
- Some *Additional Books in Roman Catholic and other Bibles include writings which are helpful, but NOT the inspired Word of God.
  - The word Apocrypha means “hidden.”
- Gnostic Books (& gospels) which some *claim as part of the Bible oppose the Holy Scriptures and Word of God.
  - *The term apocryphal is also applied to other books that are New Testament forgeries. An example of this would be the Gospel of Thomas, which claims to have been written by Jesus’ disciple Thomas. The book, however is a forgery.
- Some contemporary ‘translations’ of the Bible are *biased against true Scripture and do NOT actually translate Scripture from the original Hebrew and Greek.
  - *Examples of Anti-Trinitarian bias of the NWT (New World Translation) of the Jehovah Witnesses cult non-secure links to authoritative research by Bruce M. Metzger from Christianity Today available.
The BIBLE

I will not go into detail here concerning the Canon of Scripture and historical affirmations of the Authority of God’s word.

{You may find it helpful to remember the competing authority of definition 1 from the Oxford English Dictionary
- – i.e. Canon So-and-so, Bishop of Rome, London, etc.}
Technically, the HISTORY of the Bible is NOT itself, DOCTRINE, however one cannot fully appreciate the Bible now in print for most anyone without a brief look at how the Canon of Scripture came about.

Since many respected theologians have provided proofs of the authenticity of the Books of the Bible [66 total] included in the teachings of the church, I will highlight just a few dates for your further research if you desire.
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Although I use and refer to several sources, if I could suggest one indexed authoritative source for your person answer to questions about the Bible I recommend:

 https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/index.cfm
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Creeds & the Canon of Scripture

The Biblical Canon

is the collection of scriptural books that God has given his corporate people, which are distinguished by their divine qualities, reception by the collective body, and their apostolic connection, either by authorship or association.

Source: The Gospel Coalition

Authoritative Authors

A final attribute of canonical books is that they are written by God’s chosen agents, his inspired prophets and apostles. Put simply, not just anyone can speak for God; .. prophets and other inspired spokesmen .. it included the apostles, Christ’s authoritative witnesses …

‘We have good historical evidence…‘

A few of the historical events of note which have constantly and consistently affirmed the Authority of God through the Holy Bible.
- ‘The earliest Christian creed is found in the New Testament, which declares, “Jesus is Lord.”’ – R.C. Sproel, Avoiding Theological Anarchy
- A.D. 50 – Council of Jerusalem see Acts 15
- The deity of Christ was at issue at the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). In that council the full deity of Christ was affirmed, and Christ, the divine Logos, the second person of the Trinity, was declared to be co-essential and co-eternal with the Father. – See the Nicene Creed.
- The Apostles’ Creed dates to about A.D. 390 in a letter from Ambrose of Milan to Pope Siricius, but its complete current form does not appear until the eighth century.
- Council at Ephesus A.D. 431 confirmed the original Nicene Creed, and condemned the teachings of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who held that the Virgin Mary may be called the Christotokos, “Christ-bearer” but not the Theotokos, “God-bearer”.
- In A.D. 451 the Emperor Marcian convened a council of some five hundred bishops at Chalcedon. The Chalcedonian theologians were conscious of deviations from biblical orthodoxy that had plagued the church for over a hundred years an emerged with The Athanasian Creed, honoring Athanasius, the great champion of Trinitarian orthodoxy who died in A.D. 373..
The Great Schism of 1054

‘So on July 16, 1054, the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” as the Nicene Creed puts it, split. And then there were two.’
Stephen Nichols

The Protest and Reformation
- A.D. 1521 Diet of Worms, meeting of the Diet (assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire held at Worms, Germany, in 1521, made famous by Martin Luther’s appearance before it to respond to charges of heresy.
Because of the confused political and religious situation of the time, Luther was called before the political authorities rather than before the pope or a council of the Roman Catholic Church.

“I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.” – Martin Luther at Worms
- A.D. 1545 The Council of Trent began sitting in 1545, introducing rigidity in dogma and austerity in morals. The Protestant views of justification by faith alone, the Lord’s Supper, and the propriety of clerical marriage were sharply rejected. All deviation within the Catholic fold was rigidly suppressed.
- London, A.D. 1611 – King James Bible printed in English, after Protestantism had been restored to England.
MORE.. Church Divided / Empire Fallen 2

DOCTRINE – What do you believe?
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To be continued...
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NEXT: More on Doctrine of the Bible
June 26, 2021