Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Jesus

‘You’re NOT MY Father!’ – the prodigal C.E. Evangelical
‘You’re not my father,’ the young woman yelled at the top of her voice as her mother tried to take control of the situation. (The prodigal teen might just as well been a son rejecting the authority of his father.)

Our Family Prodigal

Most Christians are no doubt familiar with the scenario of Jesus’ parable about the prodigal son with its two brothers questioning their relationships with their father.

We have perhaps neglected a theological relationship of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit of God.

Today in PART 2 of our examination of the role of the FATHER we continue in our study of doctrines of the Common Era by looking at contemporary family relationships AND parallels to the Son Jesus‘ parable of the prodigal son (which of course HE is not).

God our Father estranged from Trinity

Part 1 of God our Father and His role in the Trinity

Parable of the prodigal son
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You'll find an archaic former view of 'the prodigal' in the New King James version of the Bible from Before the Common Era referring to the son's prodigal living common to this era.
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Root word from the Greek translated as prodigal or riotous.

This parable of Jesus is part of three illustrations of those whose faith is LOST as answer to why the Lord receives and dines with SINNERS.

Gospel of Luke 15:

The Parable of the Lost Son

Luke 15:11 NKJV
Then He said:

“A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. ..when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him,

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’

HERE is the riotous Common Era christian as well! You, me and others BEFORE some realize that WE may return to GOD the FATHER in humility — BEFORE some become acceptable in the Father’s house through the saving grace of the SINLESS Son JESUS our only hope and Savior.
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(You likely know more of the parable and its additional lessons from this father.)
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“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

Why do Common Era prodigals deny the Father’s love?

Our cover PHOTO, christian family photo album or church member directory could include THOUSANDS of FACES we know who were once near and dear to our hearts.
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As noted previously the truth of SCRIPTURE has not changed. 

WE cannot quite grasp the mystery of the Holy Spirit. 

AND in Common Era preaching Jesus can be promoted more like WE like on the stage of 'worship.'

YET the fruit of FALSE teaching may easily rot souls JESUS would save had WE prodigal evangelicals returned to the Father.
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Jesus welcomes ALL sinners with the love of a friend. This Common Era king embraces sinners of ALL cultures and beliefs without requiring any turn toward His righteousness and away from The Life of this world.

FALSE! According to Scripture.

Witness of a dad

I know a man in Christ.. —such a man was caught up to the third heaven.
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The Apostle Paul in witnessing a true event without disclosure of his source of witness writes to Christians in Corinth.

The 'man' in Christ may have been Paul, John during his Revelation from Jesus Christ, perhaps even Peter or another. The witness is authentic. Therefore the truth and impact of these scenes require no identification of its narrator.
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‘I knew a dad..’ I could say, ‘I know a man’ or ‘I know a woman’ or even ‘I knew a 21st century common era mom.’

Here is true witness of several sad stories of sin:

common fathers in the Common Era:
- Their father insisted, “not in my house you don’t,” but they did.
- Her older sister ran away with her boyfriend, then her father came into her at night!
- Their ‘christian‘ mother was caught in the arms of another man, then threw her father out of their house.
- The church had no idea who the father of a single mom leading worship might be.
- Their father cheated with a woman at work, then they all moved to another town where this prodigal pastor did it again.
- The PK (Pastor’s Kid) was known to be sleeping with a significant other.
- When their son got his girlfriend pregnant mom helped pay for her to get an abortion.
- She changed schools so no one would know what her mother dared not tell her father.
- A father suspected his son partied all night with guys and girls alike.
- “HE’S NOT MY FATHER! You have to choose between him and ME,” insisted the step-daughter to her mom.
These are all lost sheep, prodigal sons and daughters of FATHERS who are also sinners.

JESUS would invite ANY to the great feast of Heaven..

YET MANY will die in their sin

still refusing to turn back to our Father God

from so many pigsties of the Common Era.

Further resistance against fathers

SOMETHING CHANGED, but I’m not certain when.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

What is certain in 2023 of the Common Era is that:
- Christians have again become a minority.
- Marriages between one man and one woman for life are rare (even among ‘christians.’)
- Children need not be born into a Common Era home with values of God our FATHER.
- Parents of the Common Era reject accountability to a father, a family and to God.
Fathers (present or absent) may NOT raise, teach or discipline ANY human progeny.

a few more facts:
- The 1960 Census showed a record proportion married, 67.4 percent, among persons 14 years old and over.
- The number of families in the United States in 1960 was 45.1 million. (A family is a group of two or more persons who are related to each other and living in the same household.)
- In 2011, the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of Americans were married, compared to 72 percent in 1960. However, rates of cohabiting couples are rising
- according to private research company Demographic Intelligence, less than half a million couples were cohabiting in 1960, compared to 7.5 million in 2010 [C.E.]
  - Source: HuffPost 7/22/2023 C.E. TEN years ago
America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2022 – U.S. Census
- TOTAL children of any age living in household:
  - US Census Source of statistics below
    
    71.9% with living spouse present (at time of survey only)
- 4.2% Cohabiting with joint biological child (actual # may be higher than survey sample)
- 2.6% Cohabiting with NO joint biological child
- 21.3% or ONE IN FIVE – NO partner present (at time of survey)
  - A few are single fathers — MOST are culturally priased as SINGLE MOMS in the Common Era
WHY does Common Era culture reject JESUS?

GOD, the authority of any church and especially FATHERS are anathema to the majority of this COMMON ERA.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.com on Rejection of the Father of Trinity

It’s quite easy for some to worship MARY, the ‘single mom’ of the child Jesus we celebrate each ‘Christmas.’

Yet in the Common Era Mary could easily have made a CHOICE to ABORT this BABY before the Census in Bethlehem!

BUT since SHE chose to live with Joseph (who is NOT the FATHER of Jesus),

Mary was a ‘single MOM’ we can look up to — even worship as the mother of god.
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Of course A.D. first century culture was intolerant of such things.
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What does JESUS say about ‘the Father’ that is so offensive to so many in Common Era churches in these last days?

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that am He, and I do nothing from Myself, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.

“I and the Father are [in essence] one.”
Gospel of John: 6:40, 8:28, 10:30 Legacy Standard Bible

apokalypsis iēsous christos which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John,
The Revelation of Jesus Christ 1:1 LSB from Morphological Greek New Testament
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Revelation 3:19-22
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‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.

Reproof, discipline and certainly that ‘slave‘ thing WE dare not proclaim to Common Era christians.

‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Revelation of Jesus Christ to John

Talk of JESUS . com

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20 LSB – Command of the Risen Christ Jesus

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
November 30, 2023
God our Father estranged from Trinity
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places..
Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 1:3 ESV

christianity-lite Doctrines of the Christ-less Era

WE began our series by asking, Are christian pulpits erasing Christ’s Biblical line of DOCTRINE?

The Trinity and Doctrine of the C.E. Church

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..’
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+ FOCUS ON THE TRIUNE GOD the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? 
OR 
++ FOCUS on OUR EXPERIENCE as worshipers?
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I introduced this series on DOCTRINES of the Common Era by quoting scripture from the first letter of the Apostle Peter to the Church.

christianity-lite – ERASING Scripture, “It is written..”

Last time I strongly suggested that Scripture has NOT changed.

We looked at several Scriptures from Before Christ and in New Testaments from the years of our Lord written during the A.D. 1st century.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Church a Corinth 1:3-4 ESV
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Our overriding question is this:
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What changed in C.E. church worshipers?

‘SOMETHING CHANGED, but I’m not certain when.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

I listed some facts from the A.D. 1960’s and changes in OUR thinking as a church.
- The minimum wage was $1.00
- Farmers made up 8.3% of the U.S. labor force..
- about 65% of Americans were churchgoers.
- first commercially produced birth control pill was forbidden by many churches
  - EVEN for married couples (a man and a woman)
- Christian CHURCHES, pulpits and doctrines PREACHED, TAUGHT and encouraged:
NO SEX before marriage, Divorce is discouraged and THOU SHALT NOT ABORT a baby living in its mother’s womb under ANY circumstances!

COULD IT BE THE COMMON ERA CHURCH THAT HAS CHANGED?

Although GOD has NOT changed it seems that worship and OUR Common Era approach to worship may have.

THUS our lite approach to a cultural ME-focused church calling OURSELVES ‘christian.’

What changed (in Common Era preaching)?
- It wasn’t God.
- it was not Jesus Christ
- Neither did the Holy Spirit change in the six decades since the 1960’s.
Doctrine of God in a Common Era of christianity-lite

NO Doctrine of the COMMON ERA or any other millennia will stand the test of time without defining GOD truthfully.

Scripture of the New Testament since the A.D. 1st century Gospel always points to the Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit).

GOD IS!

The LORD reveals Himself through His creation, the Holy Scriptures, the HOLY Spirit and IN THE PERSON of His Only Son JESUS CHRIST.

WE THE COMMON ERA CHURCH drift dangerously with the chaff of every worldly sin upon prevailing cultural winds of these last days.

“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.”

Gospel of Matthew 3:12 LSB

so what must WE do?

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Gospel of Matthew 28:19-20 ESV – Commission of the crucified, risen and returning Christ to His Disciples

The Common Era challenge of Trinity

Holy & unholy ghosts & spirits

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1452049838875053

Anyone can preach!

You can preach in the Holy Spirit and shout out in the Holy Ghost! (Preach it, pastor.)

– BUT – is the word of the Spirit truly that from Almighty God?

– OR – is the preacher moved by a different spirit, perhaps a ghost of the past or demon opposed to the angels of the Lord God and Jesus Christ?
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I have witnessed the Holy Spirit for a time with a woman preaching or by a man sharing the cup of communion with the beloved saints. Yet it's mysterious power wandering flocks will follow. Beware if false preachers who also claim power from the pulpit or aisles of cloaked darkness. 

Test the spirits and quantify their truth by the Word and by Scripture. - RH
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For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
1 John 5:7 King James Version

‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:20-21 LSB

Will preaching any imagined Jesus do?

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” – Rev. 3:22

The Apostle John preaches Jesus Christ as ‘the Word in the flesh.’

YET even from the apocalypse of the risen Word many churches of the Common Era will preach and imagine ONLY those events which draw in the crowds.

.. I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne…

What a gracious and POWERFUL KING Jesus HE is! And just so WE Common Era christians can claim our part of this inheritance.

Jesus welcomes ALL sinners with the love of a friend. This Common Era king embraces sinners of ALL cultures and beliefs without requiring any turn toward His righteousness and away from The Life of this world.

JESUS did many miraculous things for real people when He came to earth.

And now that HE is in heaven after he died on a cross for ME and MY sins, all is well with MY faith.
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In the years of our Lord prior to this Common Era a remnant of pastors
have preached JESUS in the context of Scriptural exhortation to every believer. For the 'knock at the door' passage of Christ's Revelation is a call of repentance to a lukewarm church.
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‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Revelation 3:19 LSB (the Word to those on the other side of the door)

Many worshipers lack the Spirit and christians of every era fail to have ears to hear the very breath of the Word.

Will your Common Era Pastor preach that some standing inside the door on which your ‘king Jesus’ knocks ‘do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked‘?

And there YOU stand without His white robes believing HE is ready to embrace YOU!

Through all the years and recent decades of our Lord, few 21st century christians have a problem with JESUS..

since by omitting the hard parts WE can preach his gospel with so many variations.

Our estranged Father in Heaven

Common Era christians ESTRANGED from fathers

What changed (in Common Era preaching)?

If not our worshipers lifting up with the chaff in the Holy Spirit

— if not our re-imagining a jesus to our liking —

THEN certainly our all-too-common era trouble with the Trinity must lie in a single broken relationship: that of Common Era christians with God the Father.

Revealed Honor to God the Father of Glory

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

‘You shall rise up before the gray-haired and honor the aged, and you shall fear your God; I am Yahweh.
From the Book of the Law – Exodus 20:12; Leviticus 19:32 LSB

“I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,

And the Ancient of Days was seated;

His clothing was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool.

His throne was ablaze with fire,

Its wheels were a burning fire.
Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days 7:9 LSB

a few more facts of Common Era worshipers

‘SOMETHING CHANGED, but I’m not certain when.’
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Do YOU know? Can YOU contribute a comment with YOUR opinion?
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- The 1960 Census showed a record proportion married, 67.4 percent, among persons 14 years old and over.
  - In 2022, about 132.3 million or 49.3% of Americans age 15 and over were unmarried, according to the Current Population Survey. [compared to ~33% in 1960]
- JULY 2023 C.E.
  - Of the 63.2M parents living with their children
    
    <18, 76.1% lived with a spouse,
    
    15.1% had no spouse/partner present.
    
    The rest [~ ONE in TEN PARENTS] lived with a cohabiting partner.
    
    Note: Direct identification of both parents began in 2007, resulting in the ability to identify children living with two unmarried parents.
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Source: Census.gov library
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How do YOU react to God the Father?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

“.. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.
Gospel of the Apostle Matthew 7:21,11:27b CSB

“I and the Father are one.”
Testimony of Jesus from the Gospel of John 10:30 Christian Standard Bible

Do YOU have a problem with THAT, dearly beloved Common Era christian estranged from GOD our FATHER?

NEXT: More on this doctrinal challenge of the Common Era… God willing.

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
November 11, 2023
Evil spirits, exorcism, possession of Power
ACTS 19:

..and the evil spirits went out of them.
Acts of the Apostles 19:12c KJV

Acts of God, evil spirits and exorcists

In his account of Paul’s third missionary journey the physician Luke now records signs YOU may find hard to believe.

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS, 21st Century believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?

..they were healed of their diseases, and evil spirits were expelled.
Acts of the Apostles 19:12b NLT

Previously, in Luke’s account:

Lectures about God in Athens’ University of Idols

Back in Athens Paul had lectured about the futility of worshiping things made by man as having the power of God.

Powerful Preaching to powerless Christians

Luke tells us how (as an itinerate preacher) Paul had encountered some believers who had not received the power of the Holy Spirit.

Powers of Preaching

Apollos had preached the word with power prior to departing Ephesus for Corinth. Paul then arrives in Ephesus and proclaims the Gospel in the local synagogue for three months.

BUT in the meantime, some itinerate Jews have heard ot these men attracting a following and so sought to imitate their techniques and powers of persuasion.
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As you may know it doesn't go so well for them, even as some time ago on Paul's first missionary journey Bar-Jesus lost his evil influence on events in Cypress.

AND you probably have a Hollywood-tainted image of a ritualistic Roman Catholic ceremony.
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Jewish Exorcists

But there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who attempted to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus when dealing with those who had evil spirits. They would say, “I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
ACTS 19:13- J.B. Phillips New Testament paraphrase – The violence of evil and the power of the “name”

“I command you in the name of Jesus!

CAN ANYONE DO THIS? OR CAN A PRIEST OR PREACHER COMMAND EVIL SPIRITS?

YOU probably have your 21st century of the Common Era doubts.

But what happened to these exorcists?

Mostly nothing at all — just like the Pentecostalism preached on some 20th century television stages. AND of course no authentic healing of the sick like JESUS had done so often.

Luke’s account however does give us one powerful example of what did happen:

Acts 19:

14 Now seven sons of one named Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them,

“I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”

16 And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them, subdued all of them, and utterly prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
Acts 19:14-16 Legacy Standard Bible
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Don't YOU just want to say, 'GOOD!' They got their just due?
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BUT WAIT A MINUTE!

IF WE ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT LUKE TELLS US ABOUT SEVEN PRIESTS RUNNING OUT OF A HOUSE NAKED AND DEFEATED BY AN EVIL SPIRIT, THEN WE MUST ACCEPT AN IMPACT OF EVIL SPIRITS ON ORDINARY MEN AND WOMEN.

Miracles and Power!

Luke now moves on from the ethereal teaching of Tyrannus and Mars Hill to the aetheris winds beyond that which is seen by man.

Most of us don’t really believe in miracles, do we?

WE know of the unexplainable, but rare is any occasion of seeing the unseen.

Sinful men and women want power!

Seven priests talked a good game, but when the higher unseen truth is told, they were humiliated and exposed as frauds.

POWER has a source — as does life and spirit.

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that cloths or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
Acts of the Apostles 19:11-12 LSB

THEOS (Greek word for God) was performing extraordinary MIRACLES! — dynamis, from which (in English) we get DYNAMITE!

NOT Paul, but God by the hands of Paul.

And as a consequence of GOD using these lifeless items and Spirit-filled Christians, the Lord Jesus Christ became known for HIS MIRACLES among the Gentiles of Ephesus.

KJV Translation Count — Total: 120x
The KJV translates Strong’s G1411 in the following manner:

power (77x), mighty work (11x), strength (7x), miracle (7x), might (4x), virtue (3x), mighty (2x), miscellaneous (9x).
inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth; power for performing miracles; moral power and excellence of soul; the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth; power and resources arising from numbers; power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hosts
Strong’s G1411 – dynamis – BlueLetterBible.org

evil spirits

Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:21; 20:6-7

confronted by Jesus
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“Aw, let us alone! What to us and to you, Jesus the Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

But Jesus rebuked it, saying, 
“Be quiet and come out of him!” 

And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, it came out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they were talking with one another saying, 
“What is this word, that with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.”

And the report about Him was spreading into every place in the surrounding district.

Gospel of Luke 4:34-37
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So you say you don't believe in evil spirits? 
The Law of Moses addresses them AND
JESUS *cast them out of possessed men [*exorcism] and commanded unseen spirits with Authority.
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confronted by Paul

And certain of the wandering exorcist Jews, took upon them to name over those having the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, ‘We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul doth preach;’
Acts 19:13 Young’s Literal Translation

and the evil spirit, answering, said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with; and ye — who are ye?’
Acts of the Apostles 19:15 YLT

SPIRIT – pneuma – from ‘breath’ or ‘of the wind‘

Holy or unholy? Good or evil?

Can the HOLY SPIRIT or an EVIL SPIRIT indwell a mortal man [anthrōpos]? (OR perhaps influence intellectual reasoning or affect any actions of a man or women of flesh?)

By what POWER may a mere mortal become an EXORCIST of EVIL (ponēros) and healer of diseases?

Questions of the first century Ephesians.

Yes, even questions for 21st century christians of the Common Era, perhaps skeptical of Scripture and miraculous signs through the Apostles which God gave to witness the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
Acts of the Apostles 19:17 KJV

ACTS of the Apostles — To Be Continued…

NEXT:
and fear fell upon them all

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
October 5, 2023