Perhaps it strikes you as strange that I introduce a treatise on Christianity, God and doctrine with an illustration from the coinage of a 20th century A.D. world power like US, The United States of America.
Yet in this not-so-brave new world of the 21st century Common Era WE spend countless lite-weight pennies. And more inflated American dollars than WE save say, “IN GOD WE TRUST.” All the while WE recklessly espouse political ideologies FOR or AGAINST GOD (blessing America).
October, A.D. 2013 conclusion of 5-part TalkofJESUS.com post series from the Prophets
Election year rhetoric -- nothing new. (See post from 10 years ago above.)
WE didn't trust in God then and certainly WE as a Nation do NOT trust in God now, ten years later in this Common Era of an upcoming 2024 election.
The phrase had been placed on U.S. coins since the Civil War when, according to the historical association of the United States Treasury, religious sentiment reached a peak. Eisenhower’s treasury secretary, George Humphrey, had suggested adding the phrase to paper currency as well.
July 30, A.D. 1956 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring “In God We Trust” to be the nation’s official motto. Public LAW passed by the 84th Congress of the United States of America also ‘mandated that the phrase be printed on all American paper currency.’ – source: History.com
“In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.”
Dwight David Eisenhower – June 14, A.D. 1954 – Flag Day in the U.S.
christianity lite – church & STATE – god help US
Time will not allow me to get to the christian church of the Common Era today; so you'll have to wait for my NEXT post where, God-willing, I will move on from doctrines of GOD to teaching JESUS CHRIST. - RH)
NO Doctrine of the COMMON ERA or any other millennia will stand the test of time without defining GOD truthfully.
GOD IS and God reveals Himself through His creation, Scriptures and IN THE PERSON of JESUS CHRIST.
Deuteronomy 4-5 — the line of the LAW and the GOD we crossed
“For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is Yahweh our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?
“Only keep yourself and keep your soul very carefully, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. But make them known to your sons and to your grandsons.
WE must not limit God exclusively to Israel, America or any nation, but worship the only Creator of ALL things, breathing life into human flesh and blood, choosing some as saved souls for His glory of eternal life.
I CHALLENGE ANY PASTOR who claims to be NOT GUILTY of preaching "christianity lite" to OPEN A SERMON as Paul does his letter to the Church in Rome:
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus
Pastor, are you shepherding YOUR church proclaiming yourself "A SLAVE" of the risen Christ JESUS and PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL of SCRIPTURE as God has written it?
Paul does.
.. 3 concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
4 who was designated as the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ..
16 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.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous will live by faith.”
christianity lite neglects GOD’s Righteous Wrath
Your 'christianity lite' 'pastor' will not confess this positive place of appropriate SLAVERY.
And a Common Era shepherd wearing the casual robes of cultural correctness
DARE NOT draw a distinct line written IN GOD'S WORD of Scripture.
Paul does.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men [and women anthrōpos] who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
This is only reference to ‘bondage’ in the English Standard Bible — BONDAGE is not a very popular word of cultural correctness — and “bondage of culture” does NOT occur in any version of the Bible (though the NKJV mentions bondage more than two dozen times).
The Shaking of Earthquakes
IF you will examine the events of ACTS of the Apostles carefully as has Luke, then you will see what some would call ‘natural events,’ such as the Philippi earthquake in Acts 16 by which Paul and Silas had the bondage of their shakles released, as one of many signs of power over nature, the idolatrous ‘mother‘ of many proclaiming the bondage of culture.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. – ACTS 16:25-26 ESV
Wooden bonds shackled to their feet – a chain bondage to a stone floor or base of the wall of their deep prison cell. THEN AN EARTHQUAKE!
Just then? (What a coincidence of ‘mother nature.’)
Just when the witness of Paul and Silas heard by the prisoners had been singing to God?
“But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.
.. a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.
Paul .. said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
A spiritual bondage to the darkness of evil forbidden by Almighty God. And a bondage of culture to profit from knowledge unavailable to others.
..her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison
These magistrates were Roman leaders. The slave girl’s owners may also have been Roman OR these evil masters of the girl may have been Hellenist (Greek) men of Philippi clinging to the bondage of culture, not only theirs but that of their Roman overseers.
The slave girl of spiritual bondage AND the local bondage of culture of her Philippian owners had proclaimed prophetically:
“These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”
Yet the local Philippian owners of this girl bound to sin and under the bondage of culture – the slavery of differences:
“These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customsthat are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”
Is it customary for culture to beat its prisoners without a trial?
Yes, if the loudest of crowds can rule over their rulers with impunity.
It is our own bondage of culture which refuses the Savior Jesus Christ who sent his apostles and Gospel into all the world to free sinners from death.
Sorry, my public judgment was a mistake
So just go quitely away from our culture of bondage (to what we insist on doing).
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.”
(We are moving down the cultural commanding chain of command here.)
36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.”
But Paul said to them,
“They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly?
No! Let them come themselves and take us out.”
Acts of the apostle Paul 16:37, sending out his reply to Philippian Roman magistrates through their jailer
The Legacy Standard Version [below] may be more helpful in understanding the cultural connection of this injustice.
But Paul said to them, “Having beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, they have thrown us into prison. And now are they sending us away secretly?
No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.”
Paul now draws a line in the sand by his refusal to go away quietly.
He challenges a Roman bondage of culture claiming public justice of their Pax Romana.
(Working back up the Roman chain of command ruling Philippi.)
38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens.
39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.
The political leaders of this leading Roman city have publically punished men for crimes and having served an overnight sentence in the stocks they ordered their punished prisoners to go away and don’t come back.
But Paul’s witness of righteousness in Christ demands that these apostles remain in town after this public incident.
40 So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia.
Paul and Silas then visit Lydia and their NEW church in the place where Christ’s apostles were first sent and welcomed — Philippi at the eastern edge of Europe and in the very heart of the Roman Mediterranean Empire.
What’s just happened?
FAITH of two apostles singing at midnight in a prison in Philippi and THEN an earthquake!
They might have been killed in a collapsing cell in the lowest part of this jail!
BUT it’s more than just a shaking of the ground — this pivotal sign from the All-powerful God of heaven to whom Paul and Silas had prayed and praised. The prison doors are also opened yet no prison trys to escape. They wait in the darkness for the light of the hope of Paul and Silas.
Returning to the Jailer
27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped..
..the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself..
“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said,
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts of the Apostles 16:31b – Paul’s reply to his jailer in Philippi who asked, “What must I do to be saved?”
And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.
34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
We have already examined the cultural bondage of the public court and its magistrates, who later attenpted to apologize and send them away quietly.
The faith of the apostles had been public before prison, public in prison, public at the house of Lydia and the house of their Philippian Jailer.
FAITH in the Lord Jesus is a matter of PUBLIC witness every day and in every place.
And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Why does circumcision of Timothy now seem to be a necessity if he is to continue with Paul and Silas on this second missionary journey?
After parting ways with Barnabas, Paul has chosen Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.
And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
Acts of the Apostles 15:41 ESV
view of the Taurus mountains looking Southeast back toward roads from Syria
Paul, on this second missionary journey began via a land route from the church in Antioch, rather than by sea and then proceeding north from Perga as he and Barnabas had traveled before after walking across Cypress to its coastal towns.
A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.
2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.
3 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.
But wait! I thought that we had settled those issues of circumcision at the Council in Jerusalem?
Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Acts 15:24-25 ESV
Cultural clashes between Greeks and Jews
In fact, Saul of Tarsus continues to preach Christ to the Jews at great cost as the apostle returns once more to their local synagogues along with others.
Do you recall the issue which had led Paul and Barnabas to return to Jerusalem?
Circumcision.
Many gentiles had come to follow Christ and worshiped as brothers alongside converted Jews of The Way. Young Timothy is the son of one such believer.
Saul of Tarsus had been equally zealous for the Mosaic traditions before his encounter with Christ some years ago.
Joseph of Cypress (Barnabas) had sought out Saul in Tarsus where Paul had mostly stayed out of sight of zealous Judaizers for ten years. This is not dissimilar to Joseph bringing Mary and the child Jesus out of Egypt more than forty years before after the death of Herod’s grandfather.
Yet Zealots for the Law and traditions had recently caused trouble on Saul’s first missionary journey with Barnabas.
Apostles sent out into ever-changing political landscapes of Rome, Judea and a Hellenist world in between journeyed on frequently-shifting tectonic plates of clashing cultures.
Some men had come down to Antioch from Judea saying,
“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Acts 15:1b ESV
This incident in Iconium, one of many, had threatened the apostles sent out by the Church.
On his second missionary journey Paul seeks out these new believers once more, including a young man named Timothy who had been raised by his Jewish grandmother and mother.
16:2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.
Luke mentions [16:1] that Paul and Silas travel to Lystra and Derbe even before now mentioning ‘brothers‘ in Iconium. What had happened in Iconium last time?
Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.- Acts of the Apostles 14:1 ESV
At Iconium as in Antioch Pisidia the apostles received a divided (and sometimes violent) reception to the Gospel.
The Jews of Cilicia held to their Jewishness in opposition to rampant cultural sin in the customs and ceremonies of an idolatrous Hellenistic majority of their own towns. Saul of Tarsus returns to these Christian brothers trying to convince other Jewish brothers that Jesus is the Christ.
How could these apostles of the risen Jesus reach even more Jews in theirs journeys?
In order to do this the Apostle Paul and his company of men must seem most Jewish in order to proclaim Christ in their synagogues.
BUT the issue of bringing Timothy to other towns is that his father is Greek and of course had not circumcised his son eight days after his birth — in the manner and custom of Hebrew fathers.
חֲתַן דָּמִים לַמּוּלֹֽת׃
Circumcision
At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood” with reference to the circumcision.
Exodus 4:26b – Proclamation of Zipporah after she completed this sign of the covenant of the LORD on Moses’ son.
We read and the Hellenists read of the signs that the Lord God had confirmed His solemn promises to Abraham.
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
ACTS of the Apostles 7:8 – from the preaching of Stephen to the Sanhedrin (most likely with Saul of Tarsus nearby)
Let’s be clear that in the διαθήκη covenant of περιτομή circumcision that our solemn agreement cut with the LORD is paramount to any sign or evidence of the flesh.
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying,
“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Gospel of Luke 22:20 – the words of the Lord Jesus to the Twelve at the meal of the last Passover
WE are not Jews or Christians — true followers of the LORD (as was Moses) — true disciples of Jesus the Christ of the New Covenant — by signs of baptism, communion, ceremony or any other claim of grace separate from God’s covenant in Scripture.
The Apostle Peter had also been confronted with this same issue after reporting back to the Church in Jerusalem of the signs of the Holy Spirit also given to the gentiles.
Peter, John, Phillip, Paul, Barnabas and all the evangelists of the Gospel must continue to convince Jews as well as gentiles concerning God’s mercy and new covenant of the heart.
Paul’s later letter begins by addressing circumcision.
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.
Romans 1:16 ESV
To the Jew FIRST — Apostolic approach of taking the Gospel into all of the 1st century world.
Paul mentions the culture of so many idolaters among whom the Jews and Christians live. This idolatry is a legitimate concern, more so than a sign of circumcision.
Romans 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!
Amen.
These Hellenists to whom the LORD made the Jews a light living among them are citizens of many towns to which Paul now will bring this Greek disciple named Timothy.
BUT the Jews have been rightly cautious about now allowing the leaven of their idol worship come near the worship of the Living God — most especially at their own Passover feasts.
Note: Konya (Iconium near Derbe & Lystra) in foreground – source: Google Earth AD2023
For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
I have only to mention recent, current and highly anticipated pagan festivals of the 21st century to paint a glace of the idolatry of first century — idol worship including parades, drinking, ritual sex, raucous celebrations and porneia in the public places — which Jews and Christians recognize as abhorrent to Almighty God.
The Hellenes to which Paul, Silas and Timothy would soon travel lived NOT in a unified Greece under Roman occupation similar to the religiously-united Judea of the Jews throughout the Empire, but in numerous culturally divergent city-states conquered separately by Roman centurions advancing from ports of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.
Idolatries of the Hellenes worshipping gods of each city, similar to god idols of Roman myths allowed for a tolerant Roman peace. Romans simply viewed idol worship as harmless and practical public parties of a cultural nature, even a religious duty.
These frequent festivals sometimes celebrated each year may have been out of obligation, but culturally they generally were celebrations influential men of the city used to maintain their hold on the women, boys, slaves and money they controlled.
Remember, in most of the Roman Empire and most Hellenist cities MOST men served other men of means in charge of various aspects of their everyday lives. Many captive slaves worked for local land owners and the Roman army as well, including young boys who served their masters in ways NOT acceptable to any faithful Jew.
On the further mission beyond Derbe, Lystra and Iconium (modern-day Kona, Turkiye) Silas and Saul of Tarsus would certainly NOT want any fellow Jew to mistake this faithful young man and disciple, Timothy, as a Greek (because of his uncircumcision by his non-Jewish Greek father) as some Jews who traveled like Saul already knew.
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 15 Decisions of the Council in Jerusalem (last year)
.. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:
that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.
If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
Farewell.”
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
Acts of the Apostles 16:5 ESV
ACTS of the apostles Silas, Paul and Timothy .. To Be Continued…
