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Divinity, Doctrine and Denomination
As I pointed out in our last Saturday Post WE, the church, seem to have some differences dividing our approach to divinity.

Denominations / Why can’t we all just get along?

~800 MILLION Protestant Christians [37% of the world population] can be divided into < 40,000 denominations

What does it mean to be called a “Christian?”

Who are all of those ‘denominations‘ that call themselves, ‘Church?’

And what do doctrine and divinity have to do with it?

Divinity

God IS God! (and WE are NOT)!

Anyone who denies THIS has a humility problem!

Look it up:

ĕlōhîm – אֱלֹהִים

θειότης – theiotēs From θεῖος from Godhead

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 LSB

Doctrine

This entire Saturday Post series (including Church) addresses doctrine. READ MORE: What is Doctrine?

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.
Titus 2:1 Legacy Standard Bible

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Galatians 6:7 LSB

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.. Romans 1:18

Denomination

Martin Luther originally gets much of the blame for his PROTEST against false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

Luther’s theology stood on the truths of Scripture and faith.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH.” – Romans 1:16-17 LSB

Denominations / Why can’t we all just get along?

Scripture tells us how false teachers leaven the Church and the faithful must discern the dangers of false preaching.

Church DE-NOMINATIONS seem to be doubling-down lately into divisions over SOCIAL issues.

AND this phenomenon of churches redefining themselves is not limited to any particular denomination.

What does it mean to be a church?

RE-fitting YOUR church vision to accommodate changing cultural mores doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with divinity or sound doctrine rooted in Scripture and proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As you have seen in my previous Saturday Posts, although gaining downhill momentum toward the pit of destruction, this trend is nothing new.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. .. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words..
These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been kept. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by sensual lusts of the flesh, those who barely escape from the ones who conducted themselves in error..
Second Letter of the Apostle Peter to the Church 2:1,3,17-18 LSB

In the beginnings of the first century Church the Apostle Peter mentions an earlier fall of Israel as an example of the ever-present danger of false teaching.

Can we be a ‘church‘ without doctrine?

Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach..
“My teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God..
Gospel of John 7:14b,16-17a LSB

TEACHING IS DOCTRINE!

Is the Doctrine YOU hear in YOUR church from God?

If YOU think the preacher of the church YOU ‘attend‘ doesn’t have some ‘NON-NEGOTIABLES’ of Doctrine, it’s time for you to listen closer (and think for yourself).
- What DOESN’T he/she say — EVER?
- What Truth will the man or woman with the mike REFUSE to PREACH from the pulpit or have you hear in the good-feeling lyrics of the amplified sounds of worship?
- Which Bible verses have to be bent just a little to connect to OUR audience?
  - DARE WE EVER preach REPENTANCE before grace?
  - Let’s bring Christ down from heaven just a bit, so he feels closer to OUR audience just for an hour (and only on Sunday).
  - As in my previous post on Everythingology for an all-inclusive church, perhaps I’ve overstated this (just a bit) by hyperbole once more.- RH
What makes a CHURCH Christian?
Have BIBLE verses evaporated from the wall of worship behind the stage of OUR worship service?
Does OUR pastor hesitate to mention Christ Jesus?
Is a pressing social issue important to the growth of our church?
Can OUR church be BOTH christian AND other?
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Although I am a lay theologian; that is, I study God and I study Scripture and I study Jesus Christ, I must once again point you toward the teaching of a most respected Christian theologian. 
Although I will add my comments here, seek your own answers about the church you belong to locally. 
(And once your read this and think through the doctrine YOU hear, why not ADD your COMMENTS to this post?)- RH
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Divinity, Doctrine and the Christian Life

“The great divorce of doctrine and life will destroy the Christian life.

Lloyd-Jones on the Christian Life: Doctrine and Life as Fuel and Fire
Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson By Jason C. Meyer, Series edited by Stephen J. Nichols, Justin Taylor, Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson

Doctrine and life are fuel and fire, not oil and water.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

THINK DOCTRINE, EMBRACE TRUTH, ACT ACCORDINGLY
1. doctrine comes to mind
2. truth captures the heart
3. which then moves the will to act
The Bible starts with God the Father always, everywhere and we must do the same — because that is the order of the blessed Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
Gospel of John 17 – from the High Priestly prayer of Jesus Christ to the Father

..theology must first concede that the finite cannot fully know the infinite. Therefore, theology is sometimes an exercise in negation.
Lloyd-Jones pictures theology as the act of building a fence around the incomprehensible mystery of God.
Jason Meyer
- Does the world HATE you because of any witness of Jesus Christ you claim by faith?
- WE are in the world, so do we recognize the evil one?
Have you even heard your pastor caution his/her church about the evil one?
- Jesus did.
- Do others worshiping the Lord alongside you recognize that Christ has set YOU, me and members of His Body the Church apart for salvation?
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. – Hebrews 4:14 LSB

EMBRACE this TRUTH:

Sinful man CANNOT intercede with the HOLY GOD (who WE are NOT) without accepting our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Perfect Sacrifice for our sins – the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Our partial knowledge of God is real knowledge, but it falls far short of comprehensive knowledge.. God alone is
“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
Jason Meyer, quoting the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 4:8b
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NEXT, God-willing, we will continue with Jason Meyer's overview of the doctor of doctrine Martyn Lloyd-Jones and his prescription for this brief moment of our our Christian lives.
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September 17, 2022
What happened to Peter?
Jerusalem must have been all abuzz with the questions of yet another unfolding mystery involving the Apostles. What happened to this Apostle of Jesus?

What happened to Simon Peter?

How did this leading Disciple of Jesus escape? Peter could not possibly have come to our gate since Herod has him under the guard of sixteen men?

As we witnessed previously in a scene from Acts of the Apostles 12:13-14 in His Angel at the Gate:

A servant-girl named Rhoda.. ran in and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate.

Impossible, would be their first thought.

“You are out of your mind!”

But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door, they saw him and were astounded.
Acts of the Apostles 12:16 LSB

What happened to Jesus’ mission?

It is the year of our Lord [A.D.] 44.

It has been fourteen years since the Holy Spirit first anointed the saints in Jerusalem to Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel.

Peter is not going to remain in Jerusalem.

Peter commands a continued mission

.. they saw him and were astounded.

ἐξίστημι – amazed – out of their wits (in the wonder of seeing Peter)

Luke once again on this day uses this same description as Pentecost when the Church sees Peter alive and in person, even though they had fully expected Herod to execute the Apostle as he had James.

So they were astounded and marveling, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? .. And they all continued in astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Acts of the Apostles 2:7,12 – Pentecost [~A.D.30] when Peter proclaimed Christ crucified and risen from death.

Astonishing that a girl is raised from the dead by Peter in Joppa! Amazing that the Holy Spirit had also filled Samaritans and Roman soldiers in Caesarea as Peter and other disciples of Jesus had reported to the Church in Jerusalem.

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 also.
Acts of the Apostles 10:45 LSB

Today amazingly, Peter has a command for the Church as the Apostle will address them once more in Jerusalem:

But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he recounted to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison.

Meanwhile, back at Herod’s palace..

Herod Agrippa I had seized Peter during the time of the Passover when great crowds always gathered in Jerusalem as they had years before when the Jews crucified Jesus on a Roman cross.

The king’s recent execution of James had so pleased the Jews that now Herod would kill Peter. (It would be great political theatre for this friend of Rome now gaining some cooperation from the religious parties of Jerusalem.) Herod had a high-security guard of sixteen men watch over Peter during every watch of the night. BUT..

Acts 12:18

Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

A report of amazement from these sixteen elite guards, two who were chained to Peter while two others were on guard at the Herod’s prison door.

And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards..

Remember back fourteen years ago, before Herod manipulated his way back into power?

Luke 23:

8 Now when Herod saw Jesus, he rejoiced greatly; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Jesus in many words, but He answered him nothing..

11 And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a bright robe and sent Him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.

Leaving Jerusalem

King Herod Agrippa I

Acts 12:19

.. he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.

Caesarea Palaestinae has been the capitol of Roman Judaea since AD 6 & is the residence of Herod Agrippa (and soon Agrippa II),

not Hierosolyma (as the Roman’s call Jerusalem).

And on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel and sitting on the judgment seat, began delivering an address to them [an audience of representatives from Tyre and Sidon]. And the assembly kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!”

And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
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 Marcus Julius Agrippa I - b. 10 B.C. d. A.D. 44
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P.S. Soon, Manaen, who had grown up with Marcus Agrippa in the court of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, will join the Apostle Paul and many disciples of the Way in Antioch, from where they will lead the Church on missions into the all the world, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Simon Peter

.. he recounted to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said,

“Report these things to James and the brothers.”

Then he left and went to another place.

Of course the James to whom Peter refers is NOT the first martyred Apostle James, but the biological half-brother of Jesus who is now a disciple of the Way after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

Even though Saul no longer persecutes the Church, King Herod and the Jews of Jerusalem still pursue the Apostles.

We will not see Peter for some time until after A.D. 44

Peter certainly could have returned to Capernaum to be with his wife and family. But the Apostle will return to Jerusalem at times as we will see later in Acts of the Apostles.

And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution.

But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.
Acts of the Apostles 12:24, after Peter escaped from Jerusalem
in ~AD 44 after proclaiming the Gospel of the risen Christ Jesus for fourteen years.

25 And Barnabas and Saul [Paul] returned to Jerusalem, fulfilling their ministry, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.

Then what happened to Peter?

For Your Information (Peter’s witness and leadership continues after this astounding event in Jerusalem):
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All dates approximate. Source for most is Rose Guide to the Book of Acts.
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- AD 44-48 – The predicted famine [Acts 11] during the reign of Claudius takes place; Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus will bring a collection from the churches to Jerusalem for distribution.
- AD 49 – A council of Church leaders, including Peter, meet in Jerusalem [Acts 15].
  - This, of course, is five years after Peter has left Jerusalem after being freed by an angel.
- AD 49 – Luke, who has recorded Peter’s Gospel and the acts of the Apostles (so far) departs Jerusalem with Paul on his second missionary journey.
- AD 50 – John Mark, who had accompanied Paul for part of his first missionary journey, writes his Gospel.
- AD 64-65 [twenty years after Peter escapes Herod]- Peter writes two letters to the Church
- Sometime after a Jewish revolt in AD 66, Nero will execute Peter and many others in Rome.
Jesus said to them, ” “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. – Gospel of Mark 16:15
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ACTS of the Apostles will continue on mission, God-willing, for your comments and witness of the 21st c. Church. - RH
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August 30, 2022
His Angel at the gate
A messenger after an angel

Today we’ll move around between scenes and times hoping for a glance at an angel.

(Have you ever seen one?)

Acts of the Apostles 12:

So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
Acts of the Apostles 12:5 ESV

~ A.D. 42

Scene: Likely the same upper room where Peter and the Apostles have proclaimed the Gospel to the Church with great power. It is above a palatial home of Mary mother of Mark, who will record his Gospel during these next several years.

Like James, this time the Apostle has been seized in Jerusalem and led to prison.

Here in Mary’s house, the church prays continually for their pastor Peter, who Herod will soon execute to please the Jews.

A servant girl, Ῥόδη [Rhoda] comes up to them as claimed she saw Peter.

..and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”
Acts 12:15c ESV

These believers in the resurrected Christ seem pretty insistent that Peter wasn’t knocking at Mary’s gate as her servant girl insisted, but that Rhoda just saw an angel at the gate.

Just what is it that this flock of Peter’s believes about angels?

ἄγγελος – angelos
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 KJV Translation Count — Total: 186x
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- a messenger,
- envoy,
- one who is sent,
- an angel,
- a messenger from God
..in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.”

But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”

Perhaps some in the room had witnessed the risen Christ! (Jesus, though, IS more than just an angel). He demonstrated both spirit-like and human traits during those forty days after the resurrection a dozen years ago.

Perhaps Peter has sent a messenger from Herod’s prison, even a messenger sent from God.

Philip the Evangelist or Cornelius the Centurion

Luke does not account for who is present among those praying for Peter. Maybe John is mourning in a family home for his slain brother James. But Philip might be present, traveling from Caesarea even as Agrippa frequently does. Or maybe Cornelius, now a Roman brother in the Lord and follower of Peter, could have been there (or some of his family).

These men and others had seen angels and delivered the Lord’s message.

He distinctly saw an angel of God

Philip: Evangelizing Christ’s Sheep Beyond Gaza

But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying,
“Get ready and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.)
Acts of Philip, disciple of the Apostles, 8:26 NASB20

A.D. 2022

Scene: In a neighborhood near my own home

I saw an angel. I understood her message, a graceful and timely gesture sent to me.
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Want to know more?
Comment on this post about angels, especially sharing any contemporary experience of your own, and I will privately share the rest of my brief recent encounter - RH
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Having experienced the mysterious and powerful work of the Holy Spirit personally on a Good Friday more than twenty years ago (even as many witnessed its mysteries on that first Pentecost more than a decade prior to our account from Acts of the Apostles 12), I do not marvel that those praying for Peter suggested that Rhonda, servant of the household of John Mark, had seen angel.
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Peter’s witness of Angels

It happens here in Acts 12, that this servant girl had not seen an angel at their gate.

¹³And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

Peter, however, has seen an angel – even as Luke records in Acts of the Apostles that he has before.

Arrested AND Released

“The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!”

Were some of those won to Christ by Peter’s preaching and powerful signs in the Temple (even before the stoning of Stephen) now present in this upper room where a servant girl has announced that Peter is at the gate?

Also, of course, there was the Voice Peter heard from the housetop when the angel of the Lord brought Cornelius to him: “Rise up, Peter, slaughter and eat!” .. “What God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.”

So Peter was kept in prison..

It’s ten years beyond A.D. 30, when Jesus appeared to the Apostles and an angel released Peter from prison to preach in the Temple. And it’s a few months beyond A.D. 40, when an angel of the Lord appeared separately to Peter and Cornelius.

Scene:

A.D. 42 – a high-security prison of King Herod in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover

Agrippa’s timing is not unlike that of twelve years earlier, when Jerusalem’s former Prefect, Pontius Pilate, had crucified the Lord Jesus.

But now is the night before Herod Agrippa is about to make an example of Peter in front of the Passover crowds of Jerusalem, just as he had pleased the Jews so much (remember: *Herod really isn’t a Jew) by killing James with the sword of an executioner.
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*source: Herod the Great's father was half Edomite. Agrippa grew up around Rome. 

For more READ: Herod Vexing Opposition of the Church from our introduction to ACTS 12
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Acts 12:

τετράδιον – When he [Herod] had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four [sixteen men] squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.

[During every watch of the night..]

Peter was sleeping..
- between two soldiers,
- bound with two chains,
- and [two] guards in front of the door were watching over the prison.
No one is going to escape these Roman guards of Herod’s standing watch over Peter all night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared

and a light shone in the cell;

and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying,

“Rise up quickly.”

And his chains fell off his hands.

And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and [bind] your sandals.” And he did so.

And he said to him, “[Bind] your [cloak] around yourself and follow me.”

[So Peter] went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but was thinking he was seeing a vision.
Acts 12:9 of an angel leading Peter from prison

When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now truly I know that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.”

FREE from prison & certain death

Peter, standing in the early morning hours alone in the streets of Jerusalem.

And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer…

ACTS of the Apostles – To be continued…
August 23, 2022