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Tag: Revelation

The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John

Thanks-taking feasts of C.E. humankind
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A BIG meal of little thanks in a long season of thanklessness.
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Giving Thanks to the LORD

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
1 Chronicles 16: KJV – v.34

16:34 הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה

We know the concept well — yāḏâ Yᵊhōvâ, from the Hebrew. This instance from a Psalm of David given to the priest for worship before the Ark of the Covenant. It is sometimes translated as ‘confess‘ (rather than ‘thank‘) the LORD.

“THANK GOD,” we might proclaim as a call to worship, at the table of sacrifice or in the place of the feast.

We also find Biblical lessons of thanks where God is involved but the ‘thanks‘ points to another or some provision by God.

The New English Translation uses a negative application of thanks referring to original sin.

But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 NET
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What has fallen away from the grace of God on YOUR account?
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‘When He had given thanks..’

Our New Testament images of ‘thanks-giving’ mostly recall meals and feasts.

And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.
Mark 8:6 KJV

Some will recognize the Greek root from which we derive this:

εὐχαριστέω – eucharisteō

from G2170; to be grateful, i.e. (actively) to express gratitude (towards); specially, to say grace at a meal:

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:

.. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
Gospel of Luke 17:19-20 KJV
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Don't miss that feasts of the Lord God (by various names and in every season) ought to glorify God as WE give thanks for His provision, salvation and mercy.
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Recent Thanksgivings of the Common Era

Any who have READ my Thanks-giving posts of previous years may observe that occasionally I am haunted by ghosts of holidays past. Indeed most recently I have chosen to neglect Thanksgiving more than Christmas.

COVID – The Sĭn’ch WHO Stole Thanksgiving

November 26, 2020 of the Common Era

Thanksgiving: We’re a little late and Christmas a little early

November 17, 2017 of the Common Era

Dr. Seuss
Scrooge, Santa & the Grinch in days of sadness

“Watch for the coming ‘blitzchris’ of ads and marketing this week leading with holiday headlines of Thanksgiving and Christmas. From television to social media, mega-marketing messages will be unavoidable and ruthlessly relentless.

Thanks-taking

What is YOUR take away from the Thanksgiving and Christmas ‘holidays‘ of the Common Era?

It all started when the ‘back to school’ specials came off the shelf.

BLACK FRIDAY and beyond…

Guess who I found on my own site when I searched for Santa?

Thanks-giving in the days of our Lord by the ghosts of our Christmases past were long-ago lured into hurried holidays of Thanks-TAKING easily consumed in a ‘joy OF the world.’

Taking it all in with OUR own spin
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In order not to offend the inner-human insensitivities of the pagan purveyors of nature-ruled consumers seated at our 'Thanksgiving' table, 
perhaps tolerance of our fleshly excesses must rule over traditional manners of this Thanks-taking family feast. 

(Just for a day, of course, NO thanks-giving to God AND especially NO glory to JESUS Christ, even by acknowledgement of God's only Son in OUR prayer of 'thanks.' 
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Thanks-taking in 2023 of the Common Era

Christ Jesus (of the former years of our Lord) after all, has no place at the table of sinners here briefly today to give thanks for all of our taking. AND

Every American at the table this Thanksgiving must seek freedom FROM religion (rather than becoming a Pilgrim fleeing persecution for the faith of our forefathers).

Please note intended ironic contrast of Thanksgivings ‘in the years of our Lord’ AND in the ‘Common Era’ of these recent years.

WE are no Dickens or Spurgeon of the A.D. 19th century observing the hopeless tide of poor children begging blessing just beyond the churches of London.

WE are no A.D. 18th c. Washington (an Anglican), Adams (a Congregationalist), Witherspoon (a Presbyterian signer of the Declaration of Independence) or Jonathon Edwards, President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) who famously preached “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”
Source above: The Founding Fathers, Deism, and Christianity

SINNERS IN THE HANDS
OF AN ANGRY GOD
“Their foot shall slide in due time” (Deut. xxxii. 35)
AND certainly WE no longer reside in the New World of our forefathers but thank each other for our forefathers of REASON and idolic mother NATURE for the feast of this day.

Shall WE thank God for our Thanksgiving?
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Common Era culture including many 'christians' have eliminated our previous acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus Christ as the center-line of our world's history. 

Before Christ NOW becomes B.C.E. (meaning INSTEAD of Christ). 

Before Thanksgiving became 'Thanks-taking' Before Christmas 
(Make that: Before the holiday crowds).

Yet B.C.E. perhaps most appropriately refers to the centuries of these last days when Christians could thank God at Thanksgiving, that is:
+ IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD = centuries A.D. 1- A.D. 20.
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A previous Thanksgiving

Was it A.D. 2014 or 2014 C.E.?
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You decide from the link above or brief excerpts below.
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- Who does the heathen, the unbeliever, thank?
  - Do you thank yourself for what you have given yourself this past year… for your successes in this brief moment of your mortal time in human flesh? … Why would you have gratitude to any, if you have not gratitude to God?
- 2 Samuel 22
  - Is there any question who David is thanking for his life – for his deliverance from Saul? David thanks God. David praises the Lord for saving him. David takes refuge in God. Do you?
“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
from the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 11:17 NKJV

Today, on this Thanks-giving of the Common Era, I praise our Lord God; the Father, Son and Holy Sprit Who IS, and Was and Will BE worthy of our continual THANKS and praise.

And I thank YOU, dear reader and student of Scripture, for sharing your thanks with others of this Common Era in these Thanks-taking last days of 2023.

Roger

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
November 22, 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
The Believer’s Final Rest – R.C. Sproul

August 19, 2023