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Tag: Luke

  • 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
  • From now on I will go ethnos

    From now on I will go ethnos

    ACTS 18 continued..

    ἔθνη – ethnos
    “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

    ACTS of the Apostles 18:6b ESV – Paul’s curse toward the Jews rejecting the Gospel in Corinth

    Paul’s persistence in ACHIA for 18 months

    Our 2nd mission to Jews and the ethnos so far..

    Acts 15 Google Earth map - return route of Paul and Barnabas returning to Antioch Syria after first missionary journey

    As we near the end of Paul’s second missionary journey the author of Acts who is also witness to this part of it shows his readers how the ethnos (gentiles) continue to be a challenge to the Jews.

    Once again Paul began this second mission from Antioch Syria where the apostles’ depart with an epistle to all the churches from church leaders in Jerusalem.

    Previously:

    But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

    ACTS of the Apostles 15:1 ESV

    Even an epistle from Jerusalem from leaders of the church did not solve this issue of the ethnos joining the Jews in worship.

    [In Derbe] Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

    Acts of the Apostles 16:3-4 ESV

    6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia..

    By the way, as all this has happened Paul writes a letter back to the Galatians addressing some of these same issues of ethnos.

    “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

    ..  they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagog ESVue of the Jews.. he reasoned with them from the Scriptures..

    4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks.. 5 But the Jews were jealous..

    .. the Jews from Thessalonica.. came [to Berea], agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 

    excerpts from ACTS 17 ESV
    After Paul's speech at Mars Hill about the unknow god the Apostle departs for Corinth even though a few wanted to know more about the resurrection of of the dead and Jesus a human Son of God
    more about the resurrection?

    with the Jews of Corinth

    • Paul waits in Athens for Silas and Timothy to return by separate sailing from Macedonia.
    • 17:34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
    • 18 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla..
    • 18:5 ..Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia..
    • (Most Biblical scholars believe that Luke, author of LUKE-ACTS, arrived with them.)

    Luke – an ethnos physician from Antioch Syria

    Luke was a frequent companion of the Apostle Paul, at least from the time of Paul’s Macedonian vision (Acts 16:9, 10) right up to the time of Paul’s martyrdom (2 Tim. 4:11).

    BlueLetterBible.org commentary of John MacArthur
    Corinth Achaia is a key Roman city on the Corinthian Sea

    When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

    ACTS of the Apostles 18:5 ESV

    6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

    We will go to the ethnos!

    Some Jews chained to the cultural teachings of first century synagogues believed that having been chosen by God then the ONLY way to please God was to stick together.

    AND leaders of synagogues (NOT places of worship, but of teaching) stuck to select old testaments of certain ancient Scriptures.

    The Jews had updated their LAW with rules replacing a broken OLD Covenant which God’s chosen had abandoned long-ago.

    SO HOW DOES THIS LOOK TO A GENTILE like Luke REDEEMED BY and worshiping Jesus, THE JEWISH MESSIAH?

    HOW DID GENTILES (ETHNOS) like LUKE view THE CHRIST (Greek for Messiah) OF THE JEWS?

    We CONTINUE with LUKE’s 2nd account from this juncture between the FIRST TWO MISSIONARY JOURNEYS OF PAUL and a THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY with the Apostle’s focus into all the world directly pointed to the ethnos – the gentiles of the Roman Empire even beyond Greece.

    From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 

    7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.

    The Gentiles (ethnos) ἔθνος

    Lexicon :: Strong's G1484 - ethnos

Before we conclude our 2nd Missionary Journey with Paul let's look at what the Apostle's gentile physician meant in his 1st century account of the early church.

    The KJV translates Strong’s G1484 in the following manner: Gentiles (93x), nation (64x), heathen (5x), people (2x).

    • a multitude (whether of men or of beasts) associated or living together
      • a company, troop, swarm
    • a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus
      • the human family
    • a tribe, nation, people group
    • in the OT, foreign nations not worshipping the true God, pagans, Gentiles
    • Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians

    LUKE’s NEW TESTAMENT ACCOUNT:

    • ethnos – 13x in his Gospel
    • Greek ἔθνος (ethnos) – 43x in ACTS of the Apostles

    Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation G1484 under heaven. – ACTS 2:5

    And all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles G1484 also. – ACTS 10:45

    Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. Since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles G1484. – ACTS 13:46 [from Paul’s 1st missionary journey]

    “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

    To be continued…

    NEXT: more from Corinth & the conclusion of Paul’s 2nd missionary journey to the ethnos

  • Lectures about God in Athens’ University of Idols

    Lectures about God in Athens’ University of Idols

    The inscription begins "whether god or goddess" (si deus si dea), a phrase indicating that the deity is unknown. Often there would be a request that followed ("Whether you are a god or goddess that rules over Rome, grant us...").

    TO THE UNKNOWN GOD

    TODAY’S LECTURE

    At the Areopagus –

    Visiting Professor of Philosophy & Religion

    Παῦλος – paulos

    πολίτης Ταρσεύς Κιλικία

    Citizen of Tarseus in Cilicia

    The Hill of Ares or Mars’ Hill, depending on language reference of Greek or Roman for the god of war.

    The Apostle Paul is about to make an important speech to the Romans and Hellenists studying in Athens in ~A.D. 50 at the university lecture hall of the day which sits atop a hill facing the crumbling 5th c. B.C. temples of Athena and many idols.

    Areopagus (Mars) Hill view of Acropolis from where Paul preached of the unknown God

    (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.)

    Acts 17:21 LSB
    To best understand the 1st century Roman-Hellenist culture of Athens read our two previous posts.
    Approaching Athena the ruling goddess of Athens
    Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. – Acts of the Apostles 17:16
    Approaching Athens 2 – Addressing gods and goddesses
    Brief summary of Greek mythology

    Acts 17:

    Visiting Professor Paulus teaches on the topic of an unknown God addressing stoics, epicureans and other religious professors of idolatrous worship graciously.

    “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

    Acts 17:22b ESV

    Those claiming Christ in this 21st century A.D. would do well to address unbelievers and idolaters with the same grace as Paul employed in the first century A.D. in the beginning of his apostleship into all the world of the gentiles.

    What is Paul’s outline of a logical approach to the proclamation of the GOOD NEWS of JESUS CHRIST?

    The Apostle to the Gentiles points toward the incarnation of Christ as a pivotal recent event in the timeline of human history as part of GOD’S timeless plan for mankind.

    God who made the world

    Therefore,
    the One whom you worship without knowing,
    Him I proclaim to you:

    ACTS 17:23b NKJV – of the Apostle Paul in the Areopagus

    The religious men and other men of Athens, as well as religious Romans adding their own iconic monuments to the Athens’ landscape of religious festivals, admittedly could not possibly know every god.

    Therefore, Paul begins from their own documented conclusion. They need to hear what I have to proclaim about the TRUE GOD Romans and Greeks do not know.

    (And God is NOT just the God of the Hebrews worshiped in Jerusalem.)

    Who IS the GOD WHO MADE THE WORLD?

    (Certainly not Zeus who was not in the beginning, nor the goddess Athena — but Paul does not even need to state this accepted timeline from mythology which does not worship the very God of creation.)

    α – θεός (theos) does not live in temples made by man

    24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

    β – ἀνθρώπινος (anthrōpinos) – mankind, timelines & nations

    26 And he made from one man every nation (ethnos) of mankind (anthrōpos) to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way towards him and find him.

    Although contemporary twisting of imagery limits such use of an archaic word, I like the more literal translation of this picture of man groping for God, as a blind person reaches near for that which can be touched.

     .. in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us

    Acts 17:26a NKJV & others

    γ – ἐγώ (egō) in Him we live and move and exist 

    Now our Professor of Theology, Paul of Cilicia, quotes two poets likely studied by the university he addresses -- NOT Hebrew poets such as David or Solomon -- NOT Jesus, whose many teachings have become well-known these past twenty years -- but GREEK or Hellenist poets revered by the university of classical thought in Athens. 

One is likely from Crete, where earlier along with Barnabas, Paul professed Christ to the gentiles. Paul also quotes a classical Greek poet from the forth century B.C. - source
    Paul's introduction of the One God (of the Hebrews) is non-confrontational, providing an outline of God's plan to have all people of all cultures and all nations seek and find the Living God at a time appointed by Him.

    Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

    “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

    as even some of your own poets have said,

    “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

    Paul could have quoted Jesus here, who quoted David, but instead the Apostle to the Gentiles quotes their own learned teachers.

    δ – οὖν – therefore as God’s offspring

    The question never-the-less remains the same: WHAT IF GOD created YOU?

    (It’s not simply a question of ONLY the FIRST MAN {adam}, therefore the Apostle leaves no room for arguments of philosophers backing him into a creation corner.)

    • What if we are SONS (& DAUGHTERS) of the Living God?
    • WHAT IF GOD CONSIDERS ME FAMILY?

    29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 

    Do you think of your own mother or your own father as one of these idolatrous worshiped things? Of course not!

YET if you belong to GOD's own family with your LIVING human father and mother as progeny of the LIVING GOD and Creator of all life, how can you worship your loving God like a stone, a man-made myth or self-breathed thoughts?

    30 The times of ignorance God overlooked,

    ε – θεός νῦν παραγγέλλω – theos is now declaring

    but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

    30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,

    Acts 17:30 CSB

    ζ – ἄνθρωπος πανταχοῦ μετανοέω – ALL men everywhere repent 

    The apostle to the Hellenists and Romans proclaims a STRONG authoritative choice to listeners in the Areopagus: GOD 'winked' (says the King James Version) but now commandeth all men every where to repent!
    REPENT, therefore, sons and daughters of the Living God!
For YOU are no longer ignorant.

And WHY should you REPENT? 
WHY turn back to the Living God?

    η – ἡμέρα κρίνω οἰκουμένη – a day he will judge righteousness

    because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; 

    Can WE SAVE the earth anymore than WE can save our own FLESH and BLOOD from DEATH and destruction?

    But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

    2 Peter 3:7 LSB
    SO is this professor of the unknown god proclaiming that his teaching must be given authority over all other schools of thought about our gods?

WHO IS THIS MAN Paulus of Cilicia claims will JUDGE all of mankind?

    Α – πίστις – assurance

    and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

    Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

    For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

    Romans 5:12 διὰ τοῦτο ὥσπερ δι᾽ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἁμαρτία εἰς τὸν κόσμον εἰσῆλθεν καὶ διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁ θάνατος καὶ οὕτως εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὁ θάνατος διῆλθεν ἐφ᾽ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον & again, Paul’s letter to Roman believers 5:15 ESV

    Ω – ἀναστήσας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν – by raising Him from the dead!

    He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

    Acts of the Apostles 17:31b CSB

    All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

    Gospel of Luke 10:22 ESV

    I and the Father are one.”

    Gospel of John 10:30 ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν

    παντοκράτωρ – THE ALMIGHTY

    “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

    The Revelation of the risen Jesus Christ to John 1:8 ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ λέγει κύριος ὁ θεός ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος ὁ παντοκράτωρ
    CLICK HERE: For more information about Jesus Christ and Inerrant TRUTH: Our reasoned Biblical Faith.

    ACTS of the Apostles – To Be Continued…

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