Tag: John

  • The Idolatry of Baptism – the Idolatry of Communion – 2

    The Idolatry of Baptism – the Idolatry of Communion – 2

    TODAY we continue in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians continuing to apply the communion of the body of Christ as ceremony, community and witness.

    Paul has just compared Moses leading the Hebrews through the sea to baptism in Christ and communion in Christ.


    First Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians 10:

    2 They were all baptized into Moses.. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4and drank the same spiritual drink..

    Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.


    a Contemporary Look at Communion

    And NOW, continuing in Paul's BIBLICAL TEXT, although not as the Apostle sequenced it to his first century Corinthian audience, PLACE yourself in a comfortable contemporary 21st century church for the Apostle's Sunday sermon.

    Picture Paul Podcasting to your Common Era church gathering..

    woman with cell phone
    Today's BIBLICAL references and paraphrases taken mostly from the Berean Standard Bible or New International Readers Version. PLEASE open the BIBLE on your silenced mobile device to 1 Corinthians 10.

    Good morning, beloved saints.

    I’m Paul and have been chosen to be an apostle of Christ Jesus just as God planned. And our brother Sosthenes joins you in person at your local gathering today.

    Today I will begin by addressing you, along with all of the saints sharing in the Lord’s Supper and communion in your community.

    Following my broadcast message for you and your church, Sosthenes will lead you in the breaking of the bread of Holy Communion, along with your beloved local pastor and your fellow saints sharing in the sacrifice of Christ our only Savior.

    I speak to you as reasonable people.

    So judge for yourselves what I say.

    God was not pleased with most of the church of Moses (if you will), because most of them desired the sins of worshipping idols once their GOD-appointed PREACHER Moses went up the hill to receive the LORD’s Holy LAW.

    It is God’s LAW, the LORD’s Commandments meant to sanctify and separate a Holy people from an evil world overflowing in sin from every city and nation.

    YOU have been chosen to separate IN CHRIST JESUS as a Holy People to be in communion with a HOLY LORD GOD – our merciful Father.

    My dear friends, run away from statues of gods. Don’t worship them.

    1 Corinthians 10:14 NIRV


    I know through your own pastors, shepherds of your faith, that most of you do not.

    You don’t have little Buddhas in your home OR place some Pope or Prophet on a pedestal.

    Yet every unholy message on your numerous devices reaches to lure you saints of the Lord into the inclusion of innumerable IDOLS.

    IDOLS of:

    • of self and sport,
    • inner-self and gods of nature,
    • sexual indulgence and sensual entertainment,
    • ageless health and never-to-be mentioned DEATH and then the Judgement.

    Our Lord Jesus, who sent me to YOU with the Gospel urges YOU:

    “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

    Gospel of John 5:24 LSB

    Good NEWS in the palm of your hand.


    GO ahead and LOOK at it on your device
    , (the Apostle would urge you IF he could).

    There’s much MORE

    and not one jot or tittle of the Good News JESUS proclaims is idolatry;

    but rather, Christ speaks truth.


    23 You say, “I have the right to do anything.”

    (After all, you're a FREE CHURCH because of JESUS and the CROSS.)

    But not everything is helpful.

    Again you say, “I have the right to do anything.”

    But not everything builds us up.

    So what’s a Common Era christian to do?


    In fact, my fellow saint of Christ and in Christ, regardless of all of our songs praising SELF – MY god and MY lord and MY royal blessings as part of JESUS’ resurrection —

    I can tell you (AND I SAW THE LORD JESUS AS ONE CALLED – an Apostle to YOU)The Lord did not CALL you to celebrate His Kingdom as your own (as the pagans do when WE wander off to celebrate with their gods at their feasts and festive occasions).

    Christian Evangelism by Example

    24 No one should look out for their own interests. Instead, they should look out for the interests of others.

    Do YOU do that for those the Lord seeks? 

    In fact, as Jesus commanded,

    Do YOU put your fellow saints FIRST in loving one another, even as Christ JESUS has loved US?

    Therefore,

    25 Eat anything sold in the meat market. Don’t ask if it’s right or wrong.

    26 Scripture says,

    “The earth belongs to the Lord. And so does everything in it.” (Psalm 24:1)

    YES, the earth and all creation belong to the Lord’s!

    And JESUS IS Lord!

    IF you are a humble saint of His body the Church.


    NOT Mother Nature (who has no realm of wind or fire, NO majesty over seed and sinew from dust).

    NOT some fanciful angelic cherub of erotic love.

    NOT some Bacchus of Mardi Gras beads for debauchery.

    NOT even some dead saint of our own or any Super-PASTOR of the big screen broadcasting christian charity or podcasting christian politics into every cultural corner of the world.


    NO, we worship the One Lord Jesus, God from God, begotten not made and One with the Spirit.

    Let us not test Christ as some of ‘Moses’ church’ did. (And do not grumble as some of them did.)

    And here's your Common Era application little different than with the Corinthians.

    Paul would ask a 21st century christian:

    Are Hindu gods false?

    How about Buddha and a worldly yoga of SELF?

    Would the Mormons Moroni and Smith of the Utahpian christian sect?

    And Mohammed, false prophet veiled in hatred opposing YHWH, Jacob and Christ, with adherents bowing only to their god of Allah?

    Is Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus and James and Jude our mediator before the Holy Spirit?

    Should we plea though dead Saints of the Church already with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

    Must you consult and hold high a Pope to interpret God’s Holy Scripture?

    Is God’s Earth your IDOL or the Heavens HE created IN THE BEGINNING?

    Does some philosophy or practice of the past fill your head and weekly routines of this mortal life? Has that become YOUR idol?

    • idolatry – formal sacrificial feats held in honour of false gods
    • of avarice, as a worship of Mammon

    And so too of

    Holy Communion.

    Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

    1 Corinthians 10:18b BSB

    And allow me to ask you this:
    • Do we saints of Christ LITERALLY drink HIS mystery of cleansing by that shed for us on the CROSS?
    • Must communicates of CHRIST LITERALLY eat a mysterious leaven broken unceremoniously for us on a bloody cross of Calvary?
    • AND is this the purpose of an Apostle to point out a prescribed practice to ‘Do this in remembrance of Jesus as often as we share in the feasts and cup of blessing?

    Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.

    1 Corinthians 10:17 BSB

    Christ’s Body the Church

    And that BODY is the Church

    of which Christ is the Head — Jew, Greek, Asian, African, American;

    YET ONLY those called to the communion of the saints of Christ Jesus our Lord, whose blood was shed and body broken for us.


    You can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too. You can’t have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

    Are we trying to make the Lord jealous? Are we stronger than he?

    1 Corinthians 10:21-23 NIRV

    If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions of conscience.

    But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—the other one’s conscience, I mean, not your own.

    For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience?

    If I partake in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

    1 Corinthians 10:27-30 BSB

    In whatever you do…

    do it all to the glory of God.

    Do not become a stumbling block.. to [worshipers of other religions] or to the church of God—

    Follow my apostolic evangelical example:

    as I also try to please everyone in all I do.

    For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many,

    that they may be saved.

    Follow my example, just as I follow the example of Christ.

    1 Corinthians 11:1 NIRV

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  • What is the Gospel? What are the Gospels?

    What is the Gospel? What are the Gospels?

    Ask five Christians,

    What is the Gospel?

    And you may hear THREE different answers, see an empty puzzled look and perhaps hear an honest, “I don’t really know; how do you define the gospel?”


    Go ahead: EMAIL ME your definition BEFORE you read the following OR add your definitive COMMENT at the bottom of this Christian Jargon post. 

    Gospel & Gospels – Two Definitions

    photo of earth from the moon

    You have probably heard from one version of this Scripture:

    “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

    Gospel of Mark 16:15b NIV

    I mention ‘Gospel‘ in two different contexts here:

    1. Gospel from a quote of the risen Lord Jesus Christ
    2. Gospel identifying the written account of the disciple John Mark

    Four Gospels recorded by four witnesses

    Briefly:

    1. Matthew
    2. Mark
    3. Luke
    4. John
    We've quoted these four writers of the Gospels many times AND we cross-reference these Scriptures in other accounts as well. 

    TalkofJESUS.com treats the GOSPELS as a single category due to the connected importance of the Good News of Jesus Christ reported LIVE and IN PERSON from different perspectives.

    manger of a timeless Christ "I will be with you always even to the end of the earth

    Gospel of Matthew 28:30 – Quote of JESUS after the Lord’s resurrection.

    that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
    Gospel of LUKE 1:4
    John Mark (mentioned above) and Luke, the physician who continued his detailed account of Jesus and the early Church with Acts of the Apostles, were both gentile (non-Jewish) believers who interviewed the Twelve and other witnesses of JESUS. 

    Matthew (quoted above) and John are two of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus includes John and his brother James along with Simon Peter in the Lord's inner circle of closest confidants and friends.
    about the Author the Gospel of John - photo of quill and pen & computer talkofJesus.com
    The GOSPEL of JOHN

    Luke also introduces himself in both volumes of his accounts Luke-Acts.

    The Gospel: Definition

    εὐαγγέλιον

    Strong’s G2098 – euangelion

    And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.


    Topical Encyclopedia

    The term “Gospel” originates from the Old English word “godspel,” meaning “good news” or “glad tidings,” which is a translation of the Greek word “euangelion.”

    In the context of the Christian faith, the Gospel refers to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, encompassing His life, death, resurrection, and the promise of eternal life for believers.

    gos’-pel (to euaggelion): The word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word which meant “the story concerning God.”

    The Gospel is simple really, yet with the mysterious depth of God proclaimed as the good Word of saving sinners.

    I have written topically about the Gospel at least twice: 

    (Go into all the world and) SHARE the Gospel – 2


    Further Study

    Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words offers a deeper study of biblical words used in the English language. English entries are mapped to each applicable Greek root according to the Strong’s reference numbers, and include biblical usage, main occurrences in the Bible, English transliteration, and definitions.

    εὐαγγελίζω – euangelizō – verb

    Strong’s Number: g2097

    Gospel (Noun and Verb: to Preach):“to bring or announce glad tidings” (Eng., “evangelize”), is used

    (a) in the Active Voice in Rev 10:7 (“declared”) and Rev 14:6 (“to proclaim,” RV, AV, “to preach”);


    Some claiming Christ, christians or even churches, will claim the Gospel without understanding.

    OR worse, pulpits may proclaim the Gospel while hiding behind it.

    AND some christians and churches take no action at all in evangelization or preaching the Gospel to our own personal need of Christ Jesus for salvation.

    Good News before our inevitable end

    death — and the JUDGMENT of ALMIGHTY GOD!

    2025 of the Common Era seems to have begun with story after story and yet more of the continuing BREAKING NEWS of our fallen world.


    Common Era NEWS begins with the same old sins of the world wrapped in the false idolatry: MOTHER NATURE and a world out of control * and a human-created environmental apocalypse – impending DISASTER out of reach of all their hand-holding gods.

    God as provided a paradise for man but the Lord will take vengeance who will not fear the fire of His wrath and judgment. Maui fires of AD 2023 are not the Lord's first warning to the idolaters of the earth
    Fire Maui Hawaii US
    A Kurdish Syrian woman walks with her child past the ruins of the town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on March 25, 2015. (Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images)
    1945 dead slave labors
    Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the driving rain (Pic: Andrew McGowan)
    prepare for Judgment! Revelation 8:2 KJV apokalypsis of the 7th seal pictured 2 (of seven trumpets) shofars - Prepare, Christians, for Jesus' return on the clouds!
    And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound…

    .. but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed G2097  good G2097  news G2097 to His slaves, the prophets.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 10:7 LSB


    WHAT NEWS TODAY?

    How many died THIS TIME? And how many were SAVED for nothing more than BAD NEWS? (And for how long until the inevitable return of each broken body into the dust of the grave?)

    Does the world’s news end with a feel-good story? *Do YOU feel good about YOURSELF now?

    What percentage of us will die sometime soon?


    What does the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST mean to your eternal soul

    — your deeper human created in God’s image — the YOU by which so many souls you love in this world (or perhaps just a few) know you well as more than flesh and blood?

    Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out - Acts 3: Peter preaching repentance
    Repentance!

    and BELIEVE the Gospel.


    “Many false prophets will arise and will deceive man.

    And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold.

    But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

    Gospel of Matthew 24:11-13

    Talk of JESUS .com

    “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations,
    and then the end will come.

    Matthew 24:14 Legacy Standard Bible

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  • a Failure of Kings Advent 4 of Christ

    a Failure of Kings Advent 4 of Christ

    What do you think about Kings?

    • Do you have a Sovereign?
    • Would you like to follow one?

    Who is your King?

    Perhaps your gut response would be no different than that of the high priests of Jerusalem at the capital trial of Jesus.

    The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

    Gospel of John 19:15b King James Version

    You may say that WE have no religious leaders in charge of a nation. But look closer at leadership titles where you will discover priests in politics. And don’t miss some presidents, premiers, prime ministers and even kings governing as Caesars.

    Descendants of Abraham did not always have kings, nor did the kings of Israel, Judah and Judea always have power.

    a reminder of Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    a glance at kings of the Promised Land

    Previously we witnessed pre-history as a timeline, essentially beginning again from the restoration of life at the time of NOAH.

    Which kings in history have been successful and which kings were a failure?

    TODAY, before we proceed to the recognized historical kings of Israel let’s also consider others from the Mosaic record.

    kings and princes mentioned by Moses

    mālaḵ verb, מָלַךְ

    Strong’s H4427 in the following manner: reign (289x), king (46x), made (4x), queen (2x).. more

    And Bela the son of Beor reigned H4427 in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

    • KINGS of cities (or later City-States in places such as Greece)
    • Perhaps Prince would fit better.
    • Or maybe, Mayor? (But they were military generals as well.)

    meleḵ מֶלֶךְ

    The KJV translates Strong’s H4428 in the following manner: king (2,518x), misc..

    That these made war with Bera king H4428 of Sodom, and with Birsha king H4428 of Gomorrah, Shinab king H4428 of Admah, and Shemeber king H4428 of Zeboiim, and the king H4428 of Bela, which is Zoar.

    Genesis 14:2 King James Version


    These are just a few of the kings who made war. (That’s what Kings tend to do.) Therefore, Abraham (a Prince without a city. So like these kings and generals he was treated as a king when he helped them win a battle.

    And Melchizedek king H4428 of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

    14:18 וּמַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק מֶלֶךְ שָׁלֵם הוֹצִיא לֶחֶם וָיָיִן וְהוּא כֹהֵן לְאֵל עֶלְיוֹן׃

    Melchizedek NOT just the mayor of Jerusalem or a mere Prime Minister or even Prince (as Abraham was generally treated) — the כֹּהֵן – kōhēn – Priest of ʿelyôn ‘ēl


    IF in this 21st century of the Common Era WE independent evangelists (who know nothing of kings) attempt to compare Abraham, Melchizedek, David or Solomon to any common Caesar of this day,

    or

    IF WE anoint JESUS with simply the same royal title of any King (such as Charles),

    THEN WE miss many overlapping roles of Sovereignty the Lord God gave to these men

    AS WELL AS equally important roles of the Christ our High Priest and our Prophet dismissed and diminished by the common Caesar’s of these last days.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    Kings of the Promised People

    kingdom Saul David Solomon & surrounding kingdoms of Ammon, Edom and other gentiles

    From a promise of the LORD to Abraham, a king without a country,

    to David conquering King uniting twelve tribes, Solomon son of David built the Temple and an Empire.

    You will be as familiar with the Dan to Beersheba borders as me.

    Additionally you may have discerned that Solomon conquered to the north beyond Damascus as far as Tiphsah on the Euphrates River [1 Kings 4:24].

    Solomon a distant memory of success

    The Jews of Jesus’ incarnate days had visualized their glorious past in the empire of Solomon. These contemporaries of Jesus nostalgically recalled Solomon as a Caesar of Israel in his time.

    From ~989 B.C. until his death in ~931 B.C. Solomon’s influence extended even into all the nearby world.

    Centuries of Failed Kings Before Christ

    King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh [king of Egypt]—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

    2 These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.”

    1 Kings 11:1-2 BSB

    Christian preaching makes much of monogamy here while ignoring common customs of marriage alliances between political rulers of nations through intermarriage. Yet the LORD had forbidden it.

    And incentives inviting our cultural bias against the True God of Israel continue as a leaven diluting a Common Era Church to this day.

    Frequently forced alliances led to the fall of Israel [722 BC] and decline through gradual apostasy compromised Judah just a century later [606 BC].

    esile to babylon

    606 B.C. Some captives taken to Babylon. (Daniel included)

    597 B.C. More captives taken to Babylon. (Ezekiel included)

    586 B.C. Jerusalem is destroyed by fire.


    Kings of Chosen Captives

    Without dwelling on all the kings of both Israel and Judah who ‘did evil in the sight of the LORD,’ we’ll move forward to those left powerless by defeat and the refining of the Lord our God.

    2 Kings 17 – Failure of Israel

    3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria.

    And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year.

    Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.


    Egypt's king (not so much a god and Pharoah to an Assyrian king) wouldn't help Hoshea out of his political servitude to Shalmaneser king of Assyria. 

    Does this king's representative vassal relationship sound somewhat prophetic of a later Herodian whoredom with Rome?

    Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.

    In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria…

    2 Kings 17:5-6a ESV ~724BC -722 BC


    Meanwhile, back in Judah

    Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him. He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.

    7And the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. 8He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.

    2 Kings 18:5-8 BSB

    • 701 B.C. 200,000 of the inhabitants of Judah captured by Sennacherib
    • 621 B.C. Nineveh, Assyria falls to Babylon and Media (the Medes)
    • 586 B.C Judah falls to Babylon, the rebuilt Temple destroyed and captured families of the leading Jews led captive to Babylonia
    esile to babylon
    Flight of the Prisoners, Artist: Tissot, Photographer: John Parnell, Photo © The Jewish Museum, New York

    600 years Before Christ, No more Kings of Israel;

    No King of the Jews in Jerusalem!


    Hope only for a few

    Biblical Foundations of Freedom

    The Prophesy of Isaiah, with some familiar to Christians as prophesy foreseeing the Messiah born in Bethlehem of Judea (formerly Judah), is set earlier than what we have just read in the context of the divided kingdom.

    Isaiah 10:

    Here in part is Isaiah’s and the LORD’s lament:

    11 ” ‘..shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images

    as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’ ”

    19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few

    that a child could write them down.

    22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

    Two mote Empires (Before Christ & Rome)

    For those who like me may have occasionally fallen asleep in history class I'll make this rise and fall of three Empires brief.
    • a remnant does return to Jerusalem and rebuilds its wall and Temple
      • 536 B.C. Cyrus the Great permitted the return. 49,897 Jews returned from Babylon to Jerusalem.
    • 516 B.C. The temple was completed. source
      • (Jerusalem will later get a Governor, Nehemiah and a Priest, Ezra),
      • But still no King since they are subjects of Persia.
    If not a king, how about a Queen?

    And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

    Esther 2:17 KJV

    Yet Esther becomes co-regent of the Medes and Persians [~478 B.E.] not simply a small remote city of Jerusalem.

    • Malachi’s prophecy likely came sometime after the ministry of Nehemiah around BC 458-445.
    • Malachi is the last prophet to speak before Christ.

    Before Caesars, Greeks

    The advent of Christ takes place in Judea and beyond, documented in Greek texts as was the whole New Testament. Persia.

    323 BC world map of Alexander the Great

    It’s a period of some 400 years Before Christ.

    Jews from Persia in the east, in Samaria to the north and even west as far as Rome became divided in their interest in the Bible given by Moses and the Prophets.

    Thanks to Alexander the Great, the nearby world of the Herod’s and Jews spoke Greek (not Hebrew or certainly not the Latin of Rome).

    In the timeline of all history Rome’s consequent defeat of other kings, princes and generals after Alexander’s death and division of yet another Empire would set the stage for the birth of a King from before all time born into it in a little Judean town unnoticed by a vassal King appointed by Caesar, a king of a captive Israel actually raised in distant Rome.

    These centuries of ADVENT lead up to a glorious day central to all of history and all of mankind.


    NEXT: Christmas 2024 of the Common Era, God-willing

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