I have decided to make an effort at examining what I believe the key issues are that effect the organizational church and the real Ekklesia of the body of Christ, that are the root causes for the ineffectivness of the "Christian" to change the world around them. Why the church is failing - others and themselves, can be argued in many ways. Many of today's evangelical writers desire to have the church even become more worldlike and others see the call for it to change to become less worldlike.
I see that organizational churches or institutions that like to refer to themselves "as the body of Christ" will always fail, at the goal for which Jesus told the Apostles to accomplish. "Go ye therefore into all the world, preaching the good news, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit".
First and foremost, the message of Jesus Christ, that God brought justice to the world through Him is swallowed up by preachers and teachers, that most often refer to the apocalyptic message of Christ and His resurrection as some day, a pie in the sky, by and by message.
People in general are looking to find the message of Christ's love, acceptance, justice and hope to be real and for now.
They usually hop from church to church, looking to find this hope, that we tell them only Christ promises to those that believe.
The seeker walks into a church and everything appears exactly like it does in the world.
There is the hierarchy, the procedures, the set time of meeting, the 'be quiet' and learn from the top dogs, the meetings end, the note taking stops, the formula for success in life is given, now go accomplish great things with it.
Most people work in a corporate world where all these very same things are found in the world. The exact procedures, hieracrhy, etc. There is no sanctuary from it, thus they seek sanctuary from this evil world.
We tell them, Jesus offers all of this, He offers relief from this world and it's injustices.
They go to church and for a time at least the message verbally is different, but the actions and deeds the same.
Where is the difference, they ask?
I work for XYZ, Incorporated. We hold weekly meetings. The boss speaks as he of course, is the most qualified to do so, he has been especially selected by the corporation to do so and his resume and experience probably qualifies him much more than I.
I remain quiet taking my notes, and I never ask a question unless asked first to do so. The boss banters out the problems of the corporation and our market and then proceeds to tell each of us, what actions we are to take to ingratiate the corporation with more profit, so we can keep our jobs. He tells us each individually, "keep the faith, baby", "keep on plugging, you are doing good but you can do better".
So, I return back to work, to my cubicle alone, and sort through the personal issues I have in meeting company deadlines, that no one seems to really understand or address. I find myself, alone, in despair but being ever "the faithful corporate son", I remember what the boss has spelled out as "the keys to success", and I do my best to practice them, when in reality, most suggestions or solutions are not real world but theory of the upper echelon, who think they hold all the answers.
They have been educated, promoted, primed and they make the big bucks, what are my problems to them? They are miniscule, when the bigger picture of corporate growth is in view.
So,we often drift from job to job, corporation to corporation hoping to find someone who really cares for their employees and will understand how difficult it is to accomplish corporate goals and keep the employee and the customer in mind as well.
So we drift from church to church, denomination to denomination, thinking somewhere among the thousands upon thousands of Christian churches, Christian denminations, someone will hold the answer, for just us and our problem with sin, that we can finally find someone that takes us in their arms and says, "I understand, I am going to get you the answer, the help, and make the hope a reality for just you".
It never happens, simply because it is an organization, with the very same goals as your corporation. It is to increase numbers of attendees, to increase the monthly dollar intake, to increase the expansion of the real estate holdings, to increase the various programs that will try to attract the world to seek their doors. Most of all to increase it's statistics, with "how many decisions for Christ were made last Sunday". We do as the world says to do.
We build bowling alleys, rodeo arenas, life centers, swimming pools, playhouses for the kids. We advertise on television, radio, put up flashing neon lights, bill boards give away gifts with our church name on them, and more.
We grow more and more to look like the world in everything we do and everthing we say. The similarity is obvious to all that understand.
The old saying, " if it quacks like duck, and walks like a duck, it is probably a duck?! It is true of the organization as well. "
"If it looks like the world, acts like the world, it's probably worldly"
To talk about the power of Jesus to transform lives, and then to turn around and make it all something that men do with programs and more, becomes again "humanistic effort" and "works righteousness".
To lay claim to offer something supernatural, then turn it into something natural that can be found anywhere, in the work world, the marketplace, and in life elsewhere, leaves us empty and alone and still no answers.
Jesus becomes just another marketing slogan for self power, self growth and is imaged by the few select individuals getting all the cookies in life.
Is it any wonder fewer and fewer people are attending the world's numerous church meetings each Sunday?
Why not go play golf, or take the kids to an entertainment park- what's the difference? At least these things will give you a little R&R from business as usual.
No, wonder more and more church teachers are teaching the Gospel of Health, Wealth and Prosperity. These are exciting times, for you to make money in, live for money, make it your God, and God is OK with all that.
What garbage!
People are in need for rest in their heart, not more paid vacations and more material wealth.
Transformation of lives, by the living Jesus Christ, is not something to be talked about. It is not something to be sold or edifice's built to proclaim it.
It is something that only God can do in a person's life, but then when he does, along comes the organizational church, and says- listen to us, this is what you do with your new found hope and inspiration, you take it, and mix it all up with - 3 parts world to 1 part Jesus, and you have the formula for worldly and heavenly success. Guaranteed- but you don't get your money back!
Who knows maybe you have recieved the "call" to become one of the "biggies".
You can go to college, seminary or another route and obtain your own business (local church) and become a Christian success (have the biggest congregation and building and land in your city), being a great speaker ( Mouth- Pastor/Priest) for the little ears (the laity, those that attend the meetings who are nothing more than listeners), you can obtain your own radio and TV show, so you can inspire them to contribute to the overall growth and profit of the corporation ( the church organization) and your own personal present earthly success and your future heavenly success.
Who can resist a calling to do that?
Where's the difference?
The resurrection of Jesus meant much more than just that He had risen from the dead in the times of the Apostles. Matter of fact, it had to be explained in terms of the goodness and justice it brought to this world, especially when Paul would explain it to the pagans of his world.
I mentioned once before in an article that I wrote called, "Excavating Jesus", that the pagan world was full of their Caesars, and heroes both mythological and real that had per belief risen from the dead, ascended from the ashes.
What change did it effect among people?
What good did it do them?
Where was the benefit toward the poor, the sick, the orphan, the downtrodden?
Where was a just God in an injust world?
These were the issues to which Paul had to address not just in argument, but most of all in the way he lived his life.
It had to be life encompassing all that a Christian claimed to be, because of the resurrected Jesus, who now was suppose to reside within them, as Lord and as King. What change did it bring about for justice to be seen in this unjust world?
Where was this Kingdom if Jesus really was King?
How would this resurrection become more than just another resurrection of any other king, or heroe they had?
How could this best be realized by those pagans, to show them the truth of Jesus?
Perhaps, flashing forward to today, we can see, that the organizational church would have had no effect even as it doesn't today. These pagans could remain members of the their local pagan assembly and attend some of the most awe inspiring temples built in the world, they had their own priest and teachers, often wise beyond their years, and they could perform magic, they had their own sacrifices they could make to their gods in hope that it would be returned to them, to make their business grow, their crops grow, they had their own meetings full of estatic utterances and supernatural happenings, they could obtain that "feel good" feeling for an hour or two.
When it was all over, they remained empty and destitute of true spiritual enlightment, true worship, a true spirit in their hearts that would bring justice, love and mercy to this world.
They would return to their respective jobs and homes to go on living like they always had lived- at least until the next meeting. Their gods only demanded a sacrifice now and then to obtain something good in return. "Give and shall be given to you"
It gave them the same sense of being part to a worldly community but no change of heart, no change in the way in which they would interact with everyday life and it's circumstances. The injustices would remain, the cold heartless violence of their society would remain, the same wicked deeds would remain and nothing changed. Life remained hard because there was nothing offered that differed from what they had.
All until, this small short little Jewish guy named Paul came along preaching and teaching things unheard of. Justice for all, peace to all, mercy to all, love to all from God, no less through a man named Jesus.
No hierarchy, just Jesus! Just Jesus!
What this meant goes far beyond, the T-shirts some church kids wear I have seen that say "Got Jesus".
Why do you think there are so many denominations today?
Each one establishing and defining their key doctrines to success in a "works based religion". Each one thinking they have the key to success over the competitors, whatever denomination that may be.
Each one saying, "we do it different". Then people go and find the same old story told, the same old formula, the same meetings, the same, the same as they got during the week at their job. Those doing the telling to others what to do. The power over others scenario. The same hopeless, does anybody care?
Yuk!, time for a change, since the First Church of the City, didn't offer what I am looking for perhaps this new thing called the the First Church of the Charismatics will.
Oh, it does for a time offer a little something different, but soon they discover it too fits into the same corporate structure as the rest of them. Kind of like the difference between a store meeting at Walmart, or a an old Amway meeting, full of excitement, energy and more, compared to going to work at your local five and dime, where you may not even be included in meetings with your superiors.
It's new, it's exciting, at least they will let you babble out loud, no commentary or teaching, though please. Soon it becomes, not real, it becomes, self generated, no foundation in it. Just another a short trip to no where. No meaning, no spiritual growth, no being a part of and a part to. No community, same thing- big mouth, little ears.
Who is to hear me or am I worhty to be of benefit to someone else in the group?
I'm important too, we feel.
We find the same thing all over again, no reality to where the rubber meets the road.
Now let's return back to our corporation job, Monday morning.
What happens when that customer who is always right, really isn't right, and you have been told one thing by the corporation and you call on your superiors advice and they say just "lie to them and get rid of them". The hypocrisy undermines the message.
Isn't this what the organizational church does? Lie to them and then just get rid of them if they question at all the message or the goals of the institution or it's leaders. The organizational church has a well written rule, that though, not printed in the Constitutions or by laws, that says this - "Don't Rock The Boat, or you will be thrown overboard and left to drown alone".
I wished they would post this above the entry doors of every church building, it would save a lot of seeking sheep from ever entering their gates. It would also save a lot of sheep left to bleeding alone after the injury.
It isn't the messengers fault is it?
Well, perhaps it is.
Back to my comparison of corporations in the job world to corporations in the church world. In my story the person decides he will just find another job and on and on the search for something real in their hearts is desired to be found, where justice and goodness lies, these things never come to reality, they never takes foot in the real world.
This is the same for most church goers. When the service is over, the messenger has gone home, and you can barely remember what made you feel good for the hour, along comes - the rubber to the road.
The kids suddenly make you mad, the wife makes you mad, the bill collectors make you mad, the driver in the roadway, makes you mad. You just can't find enough money to pay all the bills you have accumalted purchsing all those things for a temporary "feel good".
How do you handle these things?
Usually like everyone else. You get mad, and lose your religion. That's just the problem, when it is just words, just a message, just religion and not a reality, you lose it. You will keep on losing it, until your found by Jesus.
How can it become a reality for you, you ask?
I can say this much, the organizational church will never do it. The meetings, the messages, the programs, etc, will never do it.
Only, a truly resurrected Messiah, can do it.
Paul knew this, and I believe when he invited these pagans to come along with him to a meeting of believers what they found was community, a sharing of lives, a sharing of everything they had or would be. The Agape meal, the discourse over dinner and before and after, the taking of the bread and wine, the genuine interest and behaviour of others made the pagan realize, that this was not just any resurrection that had taken place, this was truly the Son of God, the Master of the Universe, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace.
They found in those meetings nothing that resembled the world in it's "power over others", philosphy.
Most of all, there was a love and a peace present never found anywhere else, as they sat in the home of the provider, and shared food with the family and the people shared their property with these newly invited, soon to be converts.
There was no pretense, no lording it over others, no religious activity, no formulated meeting, no leader, who was in charge, not just one person doing all the talking, it was real life community, and it turned the world upside down.
God's justice could be seen for the poor, the sick, the orphan and the way that they gave of themselves and holding everything in common.
The community, genuinely cared for one another, loved one another and when they went home to their own houses, they couldn't wait to see those they loved again, which could be at anytime of day or week, for it was relationship, as never experienced with others before. Never ever seen in the world and all it's pagan worship and admiration. These "Christians" were odd people. They were strangers in a strange land.
How, why, what made them so different?
Could it really be that this Jesus they showed in their behavior in words and deed, was really alive?
Alive, in them?
They didn't find anyone trying to be better than the other guy, no special someone telling them how to increase the profits of the corporation, no special tactics to do so, no gathering the money to build a bigger house to meet in, they would just spread out to their own homes making them available as many as such that were to come to believe and give of what they had to those less fortunate then they, these pagans came to know the reality of a LIVING AND RESURRECTED JESUS!
There was an excitement, that didn't burn out, but an excitement that spread like a wild fire to everyone around them. For they had found what they had been looking for, something that was in total opposition to the way the world does things, and though in the world, they could say, "Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven". The life of Jesus was creating that in them and about them.
It was radically different from all the pagan worship meetings they had been to. There was no priest, no sacrifice, no formula, for Christ was the High Priest, He had made the final sacrifice, He called those of His to worship in Spirit and in Truth, each being equal as a priesthood of believers.
Each one there, had importance or a part to the fellowship, one person missing would be liking losing a foot or an arm. Thus Paul could draw this comparison for those meeting in Corinth. They may have had their problems, but they had found community, they had discovered true worship...one has a song, one has a message, one a tongue, the other an interpretation, and so the meeting went.
There were no assigned leaders, no bulletins of formula to follow, all they had to do was follow Jesus and His Spirit's leading within those guidelines as laid out by Paul.
The Elder held no office, no authority, no education, they came up as a result of the Spirit's work among them, the gifts were everywhere among them, each had a gift, each could exercise that gift, whether it be adminstration, or teaching. There was no one going to look at them and tell Jesus, No you can't do it.
The AnaBaptist called it - "Sitter's rights".
The Quakers, today do some of the same thing but in a much different way then the early Christians or the AnaBaptist did.
Gradually as usual, men came along as sheep in wolves clothing to seek to steal, to kill and to destroy. To take away the power of the pope, the priest or the pastor over others was a tremendous threat and so the body of Christ, begin to be eroded at through a conspiracy from Hell! It has lasted for 1900 years. The battle still rages!
Just as Jesus was a threat to the powers that were - the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Zealots, the Sadducees and Rome herself. Men enpowered by he who usurps himself above God to want to be god, Satan continues today to do the same.
Had not the Apostles warned this would happen when they were gone, had not Jesus warned the Apostles of this same thing?
What has been left behind is a fragmented, distorted picture and a very pagan institution in the Corporate church of today. They have no concept of what these meetings by early Christians were like and what they meant to the overall message- HE HAS RISEN!
Why?
Didn't Jesus tell Peter, that the "gates of hell would not prevail against the Ekklesia"?
Perhaps, since we find so much evil in the organization, we must ask, is this the true physical example of what Jesus spoke of as the Ekklesia?
Is this the organizational church "that hell could not prevail against"?
Is this even a facsimility of what once was?
Is this the real church?
Is this what Jesus set out to do, to just create another religion full of hierarchy, and money and temples. If so, then why did he even come?
Why the big deal of Pentecost?
What was the reason for His resurrection, if many stories could be told of other great heroes and legends in pagan times and religion that were supposedly raised up from the grave and ascended into the heavens?
What difference if any should the resurrection have for believers today?
These are questions we will ponder, as I continue to write about this over the year.
Periodically there will be other writings in between.
In the meantime, I pray that you will find meaning and community in knowing the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you may experience Him fully as real in your life as the nose on your face. He is real, His power is real, and His grace and mercy endures forever. I pray for each of my brethern seeking to know this reality, that for them, our Father will call them unto Himself, and that He will come and abide with them, and they with Him.
I pray that the resurrection will mean more than just words, or ideas, but something experientially you will experience through the indwelling life of the Holy Spirit.
Dr. J.
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Sunday, April 22, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
What We Teach Our Children - Violence
In the aftermath of yesterday's horrendous senseless massacre at Virginia Tech, the questions are flying across the news, why? Of course, we will hear from all the so called experts, psychologist, therapist, counselors, and security experts. Every news network will have their own individual editorials and commentators tell us why. Well, I want to exercise the same perogative as a Christian and a news commentator.
Let me begin by saying, the answer is simple. Violence begats violence. America is the most violent nation on earth. We are blood thirsty and we are entertained by it. We love revenge, love to inflict injury on those we think harmed us.
Apparently someone harmed this male that committed this autrocity so he did what He has been taught by American politics, American churches, American policy, and American television and entertainment. He sought to avenge himself. To strike back at others before they might get him. To go after those that had caused him harm whether "real or imagined". It's the American way, for goodness sake. We watched after 911, our own "Christian President" go for vengeance. He still is.
Every year in America we slaughter millions of unborn babies. Where are the news commentators while this autrocity and senseless murder goes on? Every evening, you can catch World Wrestling, the Tough Man contest, and great films of violence, full of bloodshed, and murder. If that isn't enough entertainment for you, the delight of watching war and weapons documentaries are every where you turn your TV channel to.
We have the satisfaction of watching, movies about the death penalty being used on the "bad guys" or even the evening news. Better yet, if you are young, there are a thousand choices of new video and PC games you can play. Drag out your XBox or other video game player and you can go into a world of hurt.
Better yet, you can wait until the news comes on and catch some real live violence going on in Iraq. Nothing like seeing men, women and children who aren't your blood kin being killed by the dozens, blood stains on the roadway, blood on the wall. What the heck, it isn't your blood afterall.
Now, I don't want to make the focus as television as the source of all our problems. "Televison is only the reflection of the heart of the society that watches it".
At least that's how I see it. No, let's go to the deeper issue, the heart of a country that claims 80% of it is Christian.
Now, you may have heard all that before, but the fact is God said, the following in the very beginning of time. Let's take a look at a command of God's that he made to Noah, the man of righteousness. This is one of God's earliest commandments to Noah, this is right after "He"- Yahweh had destroyed probably millions, of people with drowning them. He alone maintains justice, he alone is just, to decide who shall live and who shall die. He reminds Noah of this with this short but very powerful command.
Genesis 9:6
Whoever shed's man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God he made man.
Then Our Lord and Savour wrapped the same package up when as the very "revealed Yahweh come to be manifest, in the flesh as Yeshua (Jesus), declares to Peter the exact same thing, in paraphrase to the verse above.
It happened on the night that we as fallen individuals would have acted as Peter did, and drawn our sword to fight off "the evil terrorist", the Pharisees, Judas and the other Temple leaders that were coming to take our King away from us. We would have drawn our sword and cried loudly "Revenge" or better yet, as in the movie with Mel Gibson about the struggle for freedom in Scotland, we would yell "Freedom" and slaughtered everyone in sight that we percieved to be our enemy, allowing the blood to splatter on our faces as they did. Yet, in the midst of the opportunity to defend their King and as far as that goes, the King to defend himself, Yeshua (Jesus), reminds Peter of these very words spoken by Yahweh thousands of years before.
Matthew 26:52
Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into it's place; for all who take up the sword shall perish by the sword."
How we have perverted the Gospel with our misunderstanding of the Old Testament and the actions Yahweh took to set apart for himself a people after His own heart. How He allowed them, as an instrument of His righteousness, to use the sword only for the Theocracy of the nation of Israel at that time. God is no longer in the nation business, or the physical kingdom business. He is in the Kingdom of God business, building a spiritual Kingdom. There has been a covental change. God can do as He pleases, you and I cannot!
It was not the heart of the Father to kill and maim and murder others, but there was no other way to punish the wicked, to keep His people from joining into the pagan nations around them and their taking on the pagan nations, sin and idolatry.
He, being the only "just" being there is in all the universe "could and can" make that decision to destroy physically the wicked. He has never, given that over to the hand of men. He allows governments to be formed, he doesn't put a stamp of approval on one or the other. He allows men to be unjust to men, for He is working out His plan. How could one ever use Romans 13 in the way American church goers do for American, they would have to justify Hitler, Stalin or any of their regimes to say, God established them and to go against them is sin.
All government has a wicked heart and desires nothing more than to power over others. For the Word of God tells us that these kingdoms belong to the enemy, Satan.
Thus, we see, our own slowly dissolving into totalitarianism as well. Men always desire to be in power over other men. This has been church history as well.
Now some may argue, that Romans 13 states differently, and in one way it is true he allows men to establish governments, and laws, and some to carry the sword, but it has never been His desire or His way for men. For He would be contradicting His own statement in Genesis and in Matthew.
Yahweh knows the heart of men, and He knows in our fallen state, men will always seek power over others.
Yet, as Christians we have been called to "power under" men. Just as our Lord did, when He could have called ten thousand angels, when He could have armed His disciples and used His powers to destroy Rome and Israel right then and there. He knew what was going to happen to Israel for their rejection of Him, and that was the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
He used a wicked nation to destroy another wicked nation - Israel. He had warned them and told them "for the blood of all the prophets and the saints were upon their heads"
Now, we ask, what can we do, to avoid future situations like the new "Columbine" killing at Virginia Tech? Well, my answer is this, we can't stop the world with their wars and hatred, with their thirst for blood, for their love of the sword. We can't even imagine that we can, for Jesus said, "there will be wars and rumors of wars", until He returns.
He also qualified what we as individual Christians are to do, and that is not to be a partaker of this world's ways of hatred, war, blood thirst, and violence. "Take no revenge, love your enemy"!
He set a people apart for himself, these are His people who have beaten their swords into plowshares. Who can lie down with a lion as a lamb, who can turn the other cheek, who can love their enemy, who don't answer insult with insult, injury with injury, just as our Lord did not in every aspect of His life.
We can do all we can to try to justify our love for blood shed, but the Lord has already spoken and when we disregard His word, and live like the world, act like the world, then we "who claim to be Christian" will suffer the consequences like the world - we will die by the sword.
It doesn't take a degree in psychology or security to understand the very simple, but powerful statement, that Jesus made on that evening. When if ever, there could have or should have been looking at things in the eyes of men, there been a breakout of violence and bloodshed, this would have been the time to do it. Yet, Jesus told Peter; "those who live by the sword will die by the sword".
What are you teaching your children at home, in your attitude's and opinion of these things? Do you love the world, it's VIOLENCE? Do you get all excited to see someone get blownup in a movie, killed by a gun, stabbed by a knife. No matter what that person is, or who he is, or what your opinion may be of him or her- it still comes down to this "they are created in God's image"- and if you shed THEIR blood, God will require that YOUR blood be shed too.
How we like to spout off the Ten Commandments to others, that is the "9" commandments, for one of the ten says this:
Exodus 20:13
You shall not murder.
By the way, there are 613 commandments, can you name them? Do you keep them?
We quickly judge others, when our own hearts are not right with the Lord.
All I can say, until real Christians start coming out of the woodwork (the world's molding) and take a stand like the once forgotten AnaBaptist and their now day brethern against being a part of the world and it's kingdoms, the Mennonites, the German Brethern and the Amish, we will see a lot more of the Virginia Techs type of violence, and I can promise with the direction the so called organized church is going now, with their love for violence, and war and all the gory murdering aspects of thinking they are going to build a "City of God" - ie; America, get out the easy chairs, and turn on your TV's because the bloodshed entertainment is just getting started.
How often I have heard the warmongers like to take Romans 13 out of context to justify their lust for hate and bloodshed, and yet they never read or qoute from the verse previous to Romans 13:1-7
What about Romans 12: 1-2 or Romans 12:17-21 or the ending of their favorite out of context scripture, verse 8 in Romans 13.
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
My answer as to why the senseless violence in America today is this- GOD SAID!
...but men say differently.
Jesus said it then and he says it now to the body of Christ -
"You nullify the commandments of God for the traditions of men! "
Dr. J.
Let me begin by saying, the answer is simple. Violence begats violence. America is the most violent nation on earth. We are blood thirsty and we are entertained by it. We love revenge, love to inflict injury on those we think harmed us.
Apparently someone harmed this male that committed this autrocity so he did what He has been taught by American politics, American churches, American policy, and American television and entertainment. He sought to avenge himself. To strike back at others before they might get him. To go after those that had caused him harm whether "real or imagined". It's the American way, for goodness sake. We watched after 911, our own "Christian President" go for vengeance. He still is.
Every year in America we slaughter millions of unborn babies. Where are the news commentators while this autrocity and senseless murder goes on? Every evening, you can catch World Wrestling, the Tough Man contest, and great films of violence, full of bloodshed, and murder. If that isn't enough entertainment for you, the delight of watching war and weapons documentaries are every where you turn your TV channel to.
We have the satisfaction of watching, movies about the death penalty being used on the "bad guys" or even the evening news. Better yet, if you are young, there are a thousand choices of new video and PC games you can play. Drag out your XBox or other video game player and you can go into a world of hurt.
Better yet, you can wait until the news comes on and catch some real live violence going on in Iraq. Nothing like seeing men, women and children who aren't your blood kin being killed by the dozens, blood stains on the roadway, blood on the wall. What the heck, it isn't your blood afterall.
Now, I don't want to make the focus as television as the source of all our problems. "Televison is only the reflection of the heart of the society that watches it".
At least that's how I see it. No, let's go to the deeper issue, the heart of a country that claims 80% of it is Christian.
Now, you may have heard all that before, but the fact is God said, the following in the very beginning of time. Let's take a look at a command of God's that he made to Noah, the man of righteousness. This is one of God's earliest commandments to Noah, this is right after "He"- Yahweh had destroyed probably millions, of people with drowning them. He alone maintains justice, he alone is just, to decide who shall live and who shall die. He reminds Noah of this with this short but very powerful command.
Genesis 9:6
Whoever shed's man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God he made man.
Then Our Lord and Savour wrapped the same package up when as the very "revealed Yahweh come to be manifest, in the flesh as Yeshua (Jesus), declares to Peter the exact same thing, in paraphrase to the verse above.
It happened on the night that we as fallen individuals would have acted as Peter did, and drawn our sword to fight off "the evil terrorist", the Pharisees, Judas and the other Temple leaders that were coming to take our King away from us. We would have drawn our sword and cried loudly "Revenge" or better yet, as in the movie with Mel Gibson about the struggle for freedom in Scotland, we would yell "Freedom" and slaughtered everyone in sight that we percieved to be our enemy, allowing the blood to splatter on our faces as they did. Yet, in the midst of the opportunity to defend their King and as far as that goes, the King to defend himself, Yeshua (Jesus), reminds Peter of these very words spoken by Yahweh thousands of years before.
Matthew 26:52
Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into it's place; for all who take up the sword shall perish by the sword."
How we have perverted the Gospel with our misunderstanding of the Old Testament and the actions Yahweh took to set apart for himself a people after His own heart. How He allowed them, as an instrument of His righteousness, to use the sword only for the Theocracy of the nation of Israel at that time. God is no longer in the nation business, or the physical kingdom business. He is in the Kingdom of God business, building a spiritual Kingdom. There has been a covental change. God can do as He pleases, you and I cannot!
It was not the heart of the Father to kill and maim and murder others, but there was no other way to punish the wicked, to keep His people from joining into the pagan nations around them and their taking on the pagan nations, sin and idolatry.
He, being the only "just" being there is in all the universe "could and can" make that decision to destroy physically the wicked. He has never, given that over to the hand of men. He allows governments to be formed, he doesn't put a stamp of approval on one or the other. He allows men to be unjust to men, for He is working out His plan. How could one ever use Romans 13 in the way American church goers do for American, they would have to justify Hitler, Stalin or any of their regimes to say, God established them and to go against them is sin.
All government has a wicked heart and desires nothing more than to power over others. For the Word of God tells us that these kingdoms belong to the enemy, Satan.
Thus, we see, our own slowly dissolving into totalitarianism as well. Men always desire to be in power over other men. This has been church history as well.
Now some may argue, that Romans 13 states differently, and in one way it is true he allows men to establish governments, and laws, and some to carry the sword, but it has never been His desire or His way for men. For He would be contradicting His own statement in Genesis and in Matthew.
Yahweh knows the heart of men, and He knows in our fallen state, men will always seek power over others.
Yet, as Christians we have been called to "power under" men. Just as our Lord did, when He could have called ten thousand angels, when He could have armed His disciples and used His powers to destroy Rome and Israel right then and there. He knew what was going to happen to Israel for their rejection of Him, and that was the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
He used a wicked nation to destroy another wicked nation - Israel. He had warned them and told them "for the blood of all the prophets and the saints were upon their heads"
Now, we ask, what can we do, to avoid future situations like the new "Columbine" killing at Virginia Tech? Well, my answer is this, we can't stop the world with their wars and hatred, with their thirst for blood, for their love of the sword. We can't even imagine that we can, for Jesus said, "there will be wars and rumors of wars", until He returns.
He also qualified what we as individual Christians are to do, and that is not to be a partaker of this world's ways of hatred, war, blood thirst, and violence. "Take no revenge, love your enemy"!
He set a people apart for himself, these are His people who have beaten their swords into plowshares. Who can lie down with a lion as a lamb, who can turn the other cheek, who can love their enemy, who don't answer insult with insult, injury with injury, just as our Lord did not in every aspect of His life.
We can do all we can to try to justify our love for blood shed, but the Lord has already spoken and when we disregard His word, and live like the world, act like the world, then we "who claim to be Christian" will suffer the consequences like the world - we will die by the sword.
It doesn't take a degree in psychology or security to understand the very simple, but powerful statement, that Jesus made on that evening. When if ever, there could have or should have been looking at things in the eyes of men, there been a breakout of violence and bloodshed, this would have been the time to do it. Yet, Jesus told Peter; "those who live by the sword will die by the sword".
What are you teaching your children at home, in your attitude's and opinion of these things? Do you love the world, it's VIOLENCE? Do you get all excited to see someone get blownup in a movie, killed by a gun, stabbed by a knife. No matter what that person is, or who he is, or what your opinion may be of him or her- it still comes down to this "they are created in God's image"- and if you shed THEIR blood, God will require that YOUR blood be shed too.
How we like to spout off the Ten Commandments to others, that is the "9" commandments, for one of the ten says this:
Exodus 20:13
You shall not murder.
By the way, there are 613 commandments, can you name them? Do you keep them?
We quickly judge others, when our own hearts are not right with the Lord.
All I can say, until real Christians start coming out of the woodwork (the world's molding) and take a stand like the once forgotten AnaBaptist and their now day brethern against being a part of the world and it's kingdoms, the Mennonites, the German Brethern and the Amish, we will see a lot more of the Virginia Techs type of violence, and I can promise with the direction the so called organized church is going now, with their love for violence, and war and all the gory murdering aspects of thinking they are going to build a "City of God" - ie; America, get out the easy chairs, and turn on your TV's because the bloodshed entertainment is just getting started.
How often I have heard the warmongers like to take Romans 13 out of context to justify their lust for hate and bloodshed, and yet they never read or qoute from the verse previous to Romans 13:1-7
What about Romans 12: 1-2 or Romans 12:17-21 or the ending of their favorite out of context scripture, verse 8 in Romans 13.
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
My answer as to why the senseless violence in America today is this- GOD SAID!
...but men say differently.
Jesus said it then and he says it now to the body of Christ -
"You nullify the commandments of God for the traditions of men! "
Thus, what we teach our children - Violence.
Dr. J.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Case of the Broken Dentures
What should we say brethern about love? Shall we be Christians only by name and association or by word and deed?
Today started out as any other day, I went to work for the morning, then came home at noon, made myself a sandwich, and then in the midst of enjoying it, I heard a cracking sound.
The sound was awful and the feeling after it was worse. I have dentures, and sure enough the top right side begin to droop, which meant only one thing, my dentures had broke in half.
I removed them and there they lay in my hand two separate pieces of my smile. Broken in two by a pickle.Now with my lips sucked back in to the lack of teeth support, the pickle truly made an expression sour!
Well, I go back to work in the evening, doing door to door canvassing for appointments, and my work entails meeting the public, so I was in an emergency.
I had paid over $2,000 back in 2002 to have my poor few rotten teeth that werre left pulled and dentures made so I could smile at others for once without embarrassment. My tooth loss was genetic over many years..
Now I looked at the pieces, thinking, $1,000 plus $1,000 equals $2,000. I had purchased dentures through some of the money my first wife left in life insurance when she passed away.
My predicament was magnified, from being told that it could cost me as much as $250.00 for a repair. I had no choice, I needed a repair, but what was I too do, I had less than $70.00 in my wallet.
I was talking to a friend of mine at the time who knew the girl that does the denture work for my dentist. He immediately called her to see if she could help me out, but she couldnt because of her moral obligation to her employer, she couldnt fix them, as she would have to use his lab anyway.
Well, that made common sense to me when he called me back and explained. I didnt know the situation.
So, I went to the Dentist, as he was someone I knew fairly well, as he was a member of the First "Big Temple" Church in Athens, - and I think he serves on the Deacon staff as well. We have met various places in town, stood by one another in line to see the movie "The Passion", and he knows my new wife and children very well, as knowing me personally as a Christian brother. My friend that I was talking to on the phone suggested that perhaps he would work out things with me for payment and to just ask him. I really had no other choice at the time but to think of asking him for his help. So, I went directly to his office and he was just opening up, from lunch time. I met him at the door. So, in the predicament, I was in, I told him my problem and I asked how much it was going to cost for the repair, he looked it up in his handy dandy computer and told me, $132.00.
Now, here I am with two broken pieces of dentures that I paid cash for initially and it was he who had received the cash, and so I asked, "can I pay you half now, and the other half on Friday"?.
Well he dodged the question, "with do you have insurance"?, To which my answer was "no", "this is why I am asking if I can't pay you half now, and the other half this Friday"?
He dodged it, saying well we don't make any arrangements for paying and then referred me to his receptionist and he darted off for the back of his office. Well of course, she is trained to tell me the same thing, and instead offers me a form to fill out for a credit card. To which I tell her, I don't deal with credit cards, I own none personally and don't want any. I am a man of my word, when circumstances allow me to be. To me the idea overall filling out a credit card application is just removing the debt that I would have owed him - Christian brother to Christian brother, to someone else other than myself to him, with a penalty attached called interest.
You must realize this is a second marriage and we have from the beginning because of our differences in view of finances, and money, and previous individuals debts kept our incomes, our living expenses, all separate.
This is decision we made for good reasons of our own.
We had separate lives before we came together financially so why not keep it that way, at least until each one of us had our debts before marriage paid off.
Well, there was no solution, I wasn't going to get my dentures fixed unless I found all the cash for immediate payment, then and there. I needed my teeth by tommorrow, so I called my wife, and said, I need your help.
Now she owns and uses credit cards, I would rather not. I hate them and the whole system involved with them.
I hated every moment of it, here I was in desperate need, trying to avoid credit cards, borrowing, to simply get this man I have known for 5 years to accept the word of one Christian man to another Christian man, for payment.
Half now and the other in 3 days.
Now, here is my statement, if Christianity is mere membership on a roll, mere reflection of going to the Temple, mere importance in the Temple, then what we have is pure Phariseeism! Undoubtedly so!
Let me remind all my dear brothers of something that God has done in my life, he made it real, whereever and whenever I have or have had to give, whether it be time, or money, or something else that I may have, when I see a need I can meet, I'm going to meet it. Most often it cost me something, time I could use elsewhere for profit, money I could use elsewhere for myself, skills I could earn money at. This is what God has taught me giving is all about.
Besides what 10% to a rich man is- nothing, is usually bread and water for the poor man. Thus the lesson Jesus was teaching about true giving in the pointing out the widows mite.
I am not boasting as to get credit for good works, or to say look at me Lord, this ability to be unselfish is not within my flesh, it is something that God provides through His indwelling Spirit, if we are his.
I want to remind all those in an occupation or trade, that here is where the rubber meets the road, because we have something often times others are in need of that we can provide. It goes so much further than a 10% tithe that you think you are giving to God each Sunday when you drop it in a plate, knowing the church has a non-profit tax declaration and it is returnable in part on your tax form as a tax deduction, it is so much more, than getting recognition for your "godly efforts" to support the church building fund and the church salaries and very little if any going to the poor, the widow or the orphan. The book of James states if you want to be religious, this is true religion.
It is the first creed of the early church - remember the poor. Somewhere in all this Western ideal of Christianity and materialism, the love of others has been lost to works righteousness that only goes to the building and the organization and recognizable pat on the back for your philanthropy.
I am not writing this because I want anything from the dentist, I have already paid him for it.
What I pray to do here, is to reprove and correct all of us, when we forget to "remember the poor" and there is a lot more to it, then just some tithe in a plate or church bucket, or once in awhile project where everyone will see you and your good works and think highly of you, as you blow your trumpet in the marketplace.
It is in times just like this scenario " The Case of the Broken Dentures" when the love of God can be brought forth to our brethern and it becomes real because it may cost us something.
So, I pray for the Dentist, but I also reprove him for a reason. He needs to reevaluate what a relationship in Christ, really means. It is much more than what you can get ,and much more about what you can give.
I remind all those who say they know Christ-
I John 3:10 - 4:1
".
Today started out as any other day, I went to work for the morning, then came home at noon, made myself a sandwich, and then in the midst of enjoying it, I heard a cracking sound.
The sound was awful and the feeling after it was worse. I have dentures, and sure enough the top right side begin to droop, which meant only one thing, my dentures had broke in half.
I removed them and there they lay in my hand two separate pieces of my smile. Broken in two by a pickle.Now with my lips sucked back in to the lack of teeth support, the pickle truly made an expression sour!
Well, I go back to work in the evening, doing door to door canvassing for appointments, and my work entails meeting the public, so I was in an emergency.
I had paid over $2,000 back in 2002 to have my poor few rotten teeth that werre left pulled and dentures made so I could smile at others for once without embarrassment. My tooth loss was genetic over many years..
Now I looked at the pieces, thinking, $1,000 plus $1,000 equals $2,000. I had purchased dentures through some of the money my first wife left in life insurance when she passed away.
My predicament was magnified, from being told that it could cost me as much as $250.00 for a repair. I had no choice, I needed a repair, but what was I too do, I had less than $70.00 in my wallet.
I was talking to a friend of mine at the time who knew the girl that does the denture work for my dentist. He immediately called her to see if she could help me out, but she couldnt because of her moral obligation to her employer, she couldnt fix them, as she would have to use his lab anyway.
Well, that made common sense to me when he called me back and explained. I didnt know the situation.
So, I went to the Dentist, as he was someone I knew fairly well, as he was a member of the First "Big Temple" Church in Athens, - and I think he serves on the Deacon staff as well. We have met various places in town, stood by one another in line to see the movie "The Passion", and he knows my new wife and children very well, as knowing me personally as a Christian brother. My friend that I was talking to on the phone suggested that perhaps he would work out things with me for payment and to just ask him. I really had no other choice at the time but to think of asking him for his help. So, I went directly to his office and he was just opening up, from lunch time. I met him at the door. So, in the predicament, I was in, I told him my problem and I asked how much it was going to cost for the repair, he looked it up in his handy dandy computer and told me, $132.00.
Now, here I am with two broken pieces of dentures that I paid cash for initially and it was he who had received the cash, and so I asked, "can I pay you half now, and the other half on Friday"?.
Well he dodged the question, "with do you have insurance"?, To which my answer was "no", "this is why I am asking if I can't pay you half now, and the other half this Friday"?
He dodged it, saying well we don't make any arrangements for paying and then referred me to his receptionist and he darted off for the back of his office. Well of course, she is trained to tell me the same thing, and instead offers me a form to fill out for a credit card. To which I tell her, I don't deal with credit cards, I own none personally and don't want any. I am a man of my word, when circumstances allow me to be. To me the idea overall filling out a credit card application is just removing the debt that I would have owed him - Christian brother to Christian brother, to someone else other than myself to him, with a penalty attached called interest.
You must realize this is a second marriage and we have from the beginning because of our differences in view of finances, and money, and previous individuals debts kept our incomes, our living expenses, all separate.
This is decision we made for good reasons of our own.
We had separate lives before we came together financially so why not keep it that way, at least until each one of us had our debts before marriage paid off.
Well, there was no solution, I wasn't going to get my dentures fixed unless I found all the cash for immediate payment, then and there. I needed my teeth by tommorrow, so I called my wife, and said, I need your help.
Now she owns and uses credit cards, I would rather not. I hate them and the whole system involved with them.
I hated every moment of it, here I was in desperate need, trying to avoid credit cards, borrowing, to simply get this man I have known for 5 years to accept the word of one Christian man to another Christian man, for payment.
Half now and the other in 3 days.
Now, here is my statement, if Christianity is mere membership on a roll, mere reflection of going to the Temple, mere importance in the Temple, then what we have is pure Phariseeism! Undoubtedly so!
Let me remind all my dear brothers of something that God has done in my life, he made it real, whereever and whenever I have or have had to give, whether it be time, or money, or something else that I may have, when I see a need I can meet, I'm going to meet it. Most often it cost me something, time I could use elsewhere for profit, money I could use elsewhere for myself, skills I could earn money at. This is what God has taught me giving is all about.
Besides what 10% to a rich man is- nothing, is usually bread and water for the poor man. Thus the lesson Jesus was teaching about true giving in the pointing out the widows mite.
I am not boasting as to get credit for good works, or to say look at me Lord, this ability to be unselfish is not within my flesh, it is something that God provides through His indwelling Spirit, if we are his.
I want to remind all those in an occupation or trade, that here is where the rubber meets the road, because we have something often times others are in need of that we can provide. It goes so much further than a 10% tithe that you think you are giving to God each Sunday when you drop it in a plate, knowing the church has a non-profit tax declaration and it is returnable in part on your tax form as a tax deduction, it is so much more, than getting recognition for your "godly efforts" to support the church building fund and the church salaries and very little if any going to the poor, the widow or the orphan. The book of James states if you want to be religious, this is true religion.
It is the first creed of the early church - remember the poor. Somewhere in all this Western ideal of Christianity and materialism, the love of others has been lost to works righteousness that only goes to the building and the organization and recognizable pat on the back for your philanthropy.
I am not writing this because I want anything from the dentist, I have already paid him for it.
What I pray to do here, is to reprove and correct all of us, when we forget to "remember the poor" and there is a lot more to it, then just some tithe in a plate or church bucket, or once in awhile project where everyone will see you and your good works and think highly of you, as you blow your trumpet in the marketplace.
It is in times just like this scenario " The Case of the Broken Dentures" when the love of God can be brought forth to our brethern and it becomes real because it may cost us something.
So, I pray for the Dentist, but I also reprove him for a reason. He needs to reevaluate what a relationship in Christ, really means. It is much more than what you can get ,and much more about what you can give.
I remind all those who say they know Christ-
I John 3:10 - 4:1
In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another: not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?
My Little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him: because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
I remind myself and others this:
Remember, when you come into the Kingdom, Jesus just might say, "where were you when I asked for help with my dentures". What will you answer? When did I see you Lord, needing Denture repairs? Car repairs, computer help, a ride to the grocery store, a little help repairing a neighbors home, or giving the food and water so desperately needed. What will our answer be?
Dr. J
".
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Easter or Resurrection Day?
The most important act that Jesus was to do, that proved and proves He was the Messiah was to be dead, as Jonah was in the belly of the whale, 3 days and 3 nights and then to be raised from the dead after this time period. Matthew 12:39-40
Now how could we ever arrive that Jesus was crucified on "Good Friday and raised on Sunday morning for this would be only 2 nights and one day. The significance of Jesus doing exactly as He said cannot be washed away by the traditions of men, for without him doing exactly as He said, He would not be the Messiah, He stated this was the only proof sign He would give Israel that He was who He said He was. All attempts to explain away, His statement are false. Good Friday and Sunday as 'the day of Resurrection' are the inventions and traditions of men,.
This time period, of 3 days and 3 nights was to be factual and historical.
How did we ever get to where we are today?
Jesus knows exactly how long a day and a night is. In John 11:9-10 He said, is there not 12 hours in a day -but if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth. In Genesis 1:4,
Jesus declares, he divided the light from the darkness, and He called the light day and the darkness he called night. and the evening (darkness) and the morning (light) were the first day..., and the evening and the morning were the second day...and the evening and the morning were the third day" The Word of God conclusivley proves the time needed to fulfill the 3rd day. It should be conclusive to all, that it was impossible for Christ to have been crucified on Friday and raised Sunday.
It is merely traditions of men that created this time period of Friday to Sunday, which if it were true would disapprove Christ as the Messiah.
The time period Jesus gave was as important as the fact that He was to be raised from the dead, less He not be the Messiah, and the sign not be true to Israel.
In
There were 2 Sabbaths that week - the annual high Sabbath, and the weekly Sabbath which was the day of the resurrection. (Saturday using standard weekly Roman traditions.)
Jesus rose from the dead as He said He would in
I Corinthians 15:3-4; "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures".
If we look at a calendar for that year, it is quite easy to figure out that the preparation day; the crucifixion day was on Wednesday, and that 3 days and 3 nights after that, was near sunset on Saturday. It is also significant that as Daniel's prophecy in 9:24-27 says, Jesus was to be cut off "in the midst of the week". This prophecy uses the day for a year symbolism so that the "70 weeks" became a literal 7 years, with the Messiah being "cut off in the midst", (after only 3 1/2 years of teaching) and also in the middle day of a literal week.
There is one more final proof in the Bible.
In
This fact would make it Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday (14th of ABIB, A.D. 31) and was resurrected on a Saturday (17TH of ABIB, A.D. 31), placed in the tomb near sunset, and rose out of the tomb near sunset on Saturday.
"Good Friday" and Easter Sunday, then must be pagan myths; traditions of men, adopted by the early Roman Christian church and accepted as "okay" by almost all Christians today.
Centuries old documents exist that evidence the Wednesday crucifixion and Saturday resurrection. A document entitled the "Didascalia Apostolorum", dating from around the year 200 A.D., mentions the last Passover Supper of Jesus and His disciples was on a Tuesday evening. It should be noted that the timing mentioned in the document also corresponds with the Biblical method of reckoning the week as starting with Sunday as the first day with the days beginning at sunset. The document states: "For when we had eaten the Passover on the third day of the week at even [Tuesday evening], we went forth to the Mount of Olives; and in the night they seized our Lord Yah'shua. And the next day, which was the fourth [day] of the week [Wednesday], He remained in the house [arrest] of Caiaphas the high priest".
From this one would conclude that He clearly was crucified that following Passover day of Wednesday.
The Hebrews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away."
I am not writing this to say that we must celebrate the Holy Days that are given, the many festivals, etc. exactly as they are. I am not a Sabbatarian, nor am I Judaic. I am not writing any of these things to call those that do what they do as far as the day they recognize makes them pagans. It doesn't, but it can surely be seen as honoring paganistic ideas of days and times.
What I do is write these things that truth may be the foundation of all our understanding of the Word and as a believer in the death and resurrection for us to realize these things as truth.
I believe it is very important for Christians to understand what they believe and why they believe it and what truth of God's word is versus the traditions of men. It is of most importance that we see how easily it is for men, the first church-state union Constantine's reign, later the ruler Theosidus and the developing Catholic church changed truth to encompass paganism into the church and how men have changed most of what is true to a lie.
We have typically stated the day of resurrection as Sunday because of verses like Mark 16:2-4
Simply because Mary Magdelene and Mary didn't discover that the tomb was empty until that Sunday morning, that He must have risen that morning, but the scripture doesnt say Sunday he arose, it just says that they found the tomb empty on this day.
Which also makes sense, as travel was limited on Saturday the normal Sabbath. Thus this is why they didn't find the tomb empty on Saturday, because they would not have walked to the tomb on a Saturday Sabbath. They were at rest, while Jesus was rising from the dead. This showing as well to the Jewish Sabbatarians with all their ridiculous rules and regulations of the Talmud, "that the Sabbath was created by Yahweh for men and not men for the Sabbath", this in my opinion is another reason I accept Saturday evening. For he didn't remain at rest, he was alive, risen from the grave as He promised come the ending of the Sabbath day, Saturday, the beginning of the evening before Sunday. He arose but it wasn't until the next morning that the tomb was empty.
So, taking the time periods as laid out by scripture, he must have had to stay in the grave 3 days, 3 nights just as He said he would as a sign, the only sign he would give to the Jews that proved he was Messiah and to us our Saviour.
So Saturday evening really had to be the time of His resurrection. Sunday, was the day it was discovered he had risen as promised.
It's not a significant importance what day "we choose to recognize" he was raised in that our salvation might depend on the day we honor, as much as we recognize how much the Catholic church changed things to fit the Roman calendar and Roman times and Roman days of importance. Constantine and Theosidus made significant changes to things eternal, the traditions of the Apostles laid on the foundation of Christ, to the traditions of men, just as the Jews did with creating the Talmud and all it's traditions above the Torah.
Men constantly work at trying to distort the Gospel. I have known men that couldnt accept the story of Christ crucifixion and resurrrection just because the recognized days traditionally do not fit the story or his promise of 3 days and 3 nights. So though it may not mean our salvation if we accept the traditions of men account over the truth, but it could mean the salvation of someone else, because of the inaccuracy of time these traditions have created.
It is significant that we recognize just what RESURRECTION DAY is versus EASTER.
So let me lay down the facts about how the EASTER thing came about.
Now let us look at the true origins of the day and time we call Easter.
Origin of Easter - A Christian Commemoration
The origin of Easter, a holiday associated with the observance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is actually based on an ancient pagan celebration. Christians recognize this day as commemorating the culminating event of their faith, but like so many other "Christian" holidays, Easter has become commercialized and mixed with non-christian traditions like the Easter Bunny, Easter parades and hunting for Easter eggs.
How did this happen?
Origin of Easter - Its Pagan Roots
The origin of Easter dates back to ancient times, not long after the global Flood recorded in Genesis 6-9 of the Bible. Nimrod, a grandson of Noah, had turned from following his grandfather's God and had become a tyrannical ruler. According to the biblical record, as king, Nimrod created Babel, Ninevah, Asshur, Calla and other cities, all known for lifestyles that promoted unspeakable evil and perversion. When Nimrod died, his wife, Queen Semiramis, deified him as the Sun-god, or Life Giver. Later he would become known as Baal, and those who followed the religion Semiramis created in his name would be called Baal worshippers. They became associated with idolatry, demon worship, human sacrifice and other practices regarded as evil.
The origin of Easter involves the birth of Semiramis' illegitimate son, Tammuz. Somehow, Semiramis convinced the people that Tammuz was actually Nimrod reborn. Since people had been looking for the promised savior since the beginning of mankind (see Genesis 3:15), they were persuaded by Semiramis to believe that Tammuz was that savior, even that he had been supernaturally conceived. Before long, in addition to worshipping Tammuz (or Nimrod reborn), the people also worshipped Semiramis herself as the goddess of fertility. In other cultures, she has been called Ishtar, Ashtur and yes, Easter.
The origin of Easter goes back to the springtime ritual instituted by Semiramis following the death of Tammuz, who, according to tradition, was killed by a wild boar. Legend has it that through the power of his mother's tears, Tammuz was "resurrected" in the form of the new vegetation that appeared on the earth.
According to the Bible, it was in the city of
Contemporary traditions such as the Easter Bunny and the Easter egg can also be traced back to the practices established by Semiramis. Because of their prolific nature, rabbits have long been associated with fertility and its goddess, Ishtar. Ancient Babylonians believed in a fable about an egg that fell into the
Origin of Easter - Resurrection Day for Christians
For Christians, the origin of Easter is simply the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ about 2,000 years ago. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus Christ, the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament, was crucified and resurrected at the time of the Jewish Passover. Since that awesome event took place, those who believe Christ is their Messiah have honored that day and often celebrated it with the traditional Passover. As the Gospel of Christ spread throughout non-jewish nations, among people who did not have a history of celebrating the Passover, the pagan rites of Easter gradually became assimilated into what the Christian church called "Resurrection Day." Compromising the commandments of God with the comfort of the world is as old as the nation of
So we see that the named day Easter is pagan in nature, and has all the roots of paganism, and ancient pagan worship. Thus, I too do not recognize the term Easter for the Day of Resurrection nor do I recognize the traditions associated with it. We are called to be separate from the world, in it but not of it. Thus it is important for us to understand the significance of the celebration and what it's true origins are. The word of God tells us to abstain from even the appearance of evil. To know the difference. To know truth from error. Surely Easter is evil and the Day of Resurrection is good.
The two must be separated for the Ekklesia so that truth will stand out like a light to a fallen world.
Jesus didn't die and raised again so the commercial marketers of the Babylonian system worldwide could obtain wealth off the purchases of Christians for Easter Eggs, and Bunny Rabbits and all that pagan garbage. It has lessened the significance of the resurrected King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So, for me, I abstain, you decide what to do with it.
Actually, American history teaches us that Easter was dismissed as a pagan holiday by the nation's founding Puritans and did not begin to be widely observed until just after the Civil War.
Now that you know the "rest of the story" and after reading the above which would you prefer?
Easter or Resurrrection Day?
Dr. J.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Excavating Jesus
Recently the news was splattered by a story that there was to be an archaelogical documentary on television presented by the "The Discovery Channel " on March 4th, which was to prove they had found the bones of Jesus. As anyone knows this would be impossible to prove and scientifically alone it stands as pure cow manure that anyone could tell whether any bones were from Jesus. First, you would have to subscribe to the Da Vinci Code myth and lies, to find a surviving member from his lineage and this would require the impossibility of tracing, Mary the Mother of Jesus forward to a surviving genetic inheritance that was alive today or worse you would have to find a relative of the direct lineage of Jesus from him and a marriage to some woman. It amazes me how "Jews" like James Cameron could even produce such garbage. I always thought him to be somewhat intelligent yet he proved to me he is ignorant beyond belief to even want to put his name behind this production of mythology.
Second - This is the second time "The Discovery Channel" has been involved in a disputed claim about an ancient tomb, CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports. The man at the center of the previous case is now facing trial for forgery.
I do want to mention an excellent book on archaeology and the times of Jesus. This book is called, "Excavating Jesus". The teachings and times of Yeshua ( Jesus) revealed through the most important discoveries of biblical research and archaeological research. This book is authored by John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L.Reed. John is professor emeritus of Religious Studies at DePaul University, Chicago, John L. Reed is a a professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of La Verne, in California.
I absolutely love how they show what the real Kingdom of God meant for early believers and what it''s nature was. It is a far cry from the Kingdom of this world, and they explain both archaelogocally and biblically how, that even in arguing the miracles and all the things we know to be true, back in the times right after Jesus resurrection would had little affect upon the hearers of these proclamations, though true, the hearers of that time, had plenty of their gods doing fantastic things as well, Jupiter rising up from the dead, and creating the Sons of Jupiter, the Caesars of Rome were also often claimed to be seen rising up from the ashes and ascending to the heavenlies, etc. These things are not explained to take from Jesus and Christians but to explain that when Paul and Peter and others debated with the pagans, and the Jews, these things unlike today, were not the grounds from which they won converts.
Though intellectual exercise was a part ot the debate, the thing that set Paul and Peter and all the Apostles apart, was their community of love, and understanding, their love of peace and love expressed to all men in Christ. This alone set the world upside down for Jesus in their times. It also goes to show how scripturally Jesus avoided leaving a place, a home, or a residence that could be exclaimed as the place of the Kingdom of God, and how Constantine thwarted Jesus purposes through the building of the Holy Sepulchre and his insistence on building Temples and buildings for worship in the style of the Romans and the Greeks for their gods for the new state-religion subjects to worship in.
In the chapter entitled "How to Bury A King", I quote,
"We do not ask whether Constantine constructed the Holy Sepulcher on the right spot. Yes, probably. We ask whether his construction was appropriate to Jesus Kingdom of God, to that Jewish ideal of a covental Kingdom on earth as in heaven. No, probably. Above all, we ask and question not so much how Constantine celebrated the sepulcher of Jesus, but how Christianity celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. "
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The truth to be told, Jesus never wanted any place on earth to be called, a holy place, what Jesus sought was to present a holy place, that had no geographical boundaries, no buildings, but a people that would promulgate through their living, their community with one another, outside of buildings, and geographical boundaries the love of God for men and women alike.
Jesus as it is written in the New Testament, went out from Peter's home or his mother in laws home, he did not bid the people "come to me where I am", he went to where they were, the byways, the alleys, the streets, the woods, the gardens, their homes, and told his Disciples the same, GO FORTH, never did he say "come to my house", but he went and made His house "where ever two or more are gathered in his name" without the elaborate ornate buildings that were later created by Constantine, without the authoritarian attitude these buildings contributed to. He went out and was a Servant not a Master. The Apostles did the same. They could have remained at home, went to the Temple and said come here if you want to hear about Jesus. No, we find even Paul seeking a place of prayer alongside a river stream, where there might be others as well seeking the solitude of nature for meditation on the Lord and to be in prayer, and Lydia, was found there. God had already set her heart apart for salvation, and Paul explained the communal - Kingdom of God to her, and not long afterward, we don't find Lydia going to the Temple, but rather prayer beginning in her household at home, and others were reached for Jesus as well. She went forth I imagine just as Paul and Peter and all of the Apostles did, not finding a welcome in the Temples often that men had built, they sought people whereever they were, at work, at play, at debate, at roadside or river side. They found people, whose hearts God had been prepared for the lesson of the Kingdom of God. I imagine she returned many times on the Sabbath day to the river and shared the Good News and then would bring them to her house to explain Our Savior, his love, his sacrifice, his resurrection by lifestyle and community of love one for another. They each came to understand, that God did not dwell in some building, not even Lydias house, but in her heart and the hearts of others like her.
The Apostles knew that a debate over just the miracles of Jesus, or even the resurrection ( though the most important tenant of our belief) would not lead a person to Jesus, they had their own gods who as well, had risen from the grave, they had their miracles and the great heroes of old. The Apostles approached others rather with the community of life that was changed for them, from hater to lover, from killer to a man of peace. Paul was a changed man, and the Kingdom of God was real in his heart, and this heart, not the argument brought people into "the Way".
It was the very reality of Christ alive in his people, their changed lives, their deeds, the actions, their love for one another, that gave precedence and reality over the pagan gods and their stories of their resurrection.
It was life changing - it had to be true this Jesus who went about doing good was really resurrected, for the people could see it in the hearts and lives of the believers. They didn't find it in a building, and I imagine, the seekers by the river side like Lydia had come to some conclusion of that or why else would they not been in their perspective temples worshipping and praying to their gods. Especially Jews on a Sabbath.
We stand in our Sepulchres, and say "come", while Jesus said "Go"!
When will the institutional church so set by Constantine and his followers through the ages, awake to the fact that what they present is nothing more than the same kingdoms the Caesars and Greek gods, and all pagan beliefs present.
The same temples, the same gods, the same priestly grab and authoritarianism.
Jesus wanted us to pray, "Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is heaven". In heaven there is no Temple for his people are his Temple, and his Son is the High Priest, and He is the Light, the Eternal Light that no man will ever see darkeness in. There is no need for sunlight there. He alone provides all the light needed. There is no need for sacrifice there for his compassion is provided instead. There is no need of tithe there, for He is the giver of all things and what could we ever return to Him that is already His in the first place. There are only His people, His priesthood of believers of all races, all nations, all that declare Jesus is Lord.
We live in a period of thought influenced by the Enlighment, these people lived in pre-enlightment times.
Their argument for Jesus was never a place to go, a person to see, or hear, but the very life of the resurrected Jesus within them, this is what brought sinners to grace, this is what saved the worse of pagans and gave them eternal life. This was the Kingdom of God come down to earth.
Not the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem that Constantine built, not any supposed home that Jesus lived in, and surely not found in a building on this earth made by the hands of men. Even Jesus had them all confused and upset when he clarified that the only building he was talking about tearing down was his body to be raised again in 3 days. The Pharisees were so carnal in thinking like the institutional church, they couldnt see beyond the place, the building that Herod built, as anything else being referred to as a temple.
Paul clarified this when he said, the body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul was not referring to a local, tax deductible, incorporated, entity of some people, under the State, meeting in a certain building anywhere. God has no other house, but His people and their heart, and the lie has stolen this for so long from His people, they have lost touch with "Christ in you, the hope of the glory".
Acts: 7:47-50 Stephen preaching to those then who still sought a place or a building as the place where God was to dwell. He states with all clarity that cannot be misunderstood. He quotes directly from scripture from the Prophets.
47- But it was Solomon who built a house for Him *(referring to the Creator Yahweh)
48- However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:
HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET;
WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME? says the LORD:
Or what place is their now for my repose?
WAS IT NOT MY HANDS THAT MADE ALL THESE THINGS?
You men are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just what your fathers did.
It was very short after this, that they stoned Stephen for speaking the truth of the Kingdom of God. These promulgators of Temple worship with their high priest lifted up rocks and just as they killed Jesus and the prophets and all those who came to bring Israels' heart to the Father, they murdered him. They gnashed at their teeth at him, as so often clergymen do that at me, when I tell them in love the truth of the Gospel and how far they have wondered away from this truth.
Constantine in my opinion did the same thing. He commited murder of the truth of what the definition of what the EKKLESIA OF GOD is, but just as Christ would not remain in the grave, the EKKLESIA has been coming out, greater in numbers these days since before the time of the early (KIRKE) church fathers begin to whittle away at the truth of the Gospel and the foundation of Christ and the Apostles. These promulgaters that God lives in a building, have done exactly what the Pharisees did, they replaced the Word of God with the traditions of men.
They gnash their teeth at me, they want me stoned for telling the truth, less they lose their place of power and money, and their very substanance for groceries, debt, fine cars, nice homes, and paid for trips. They would hate the most to lose their title, Pastor, Priest, Bishop, etc. for these things are holy and precious to them and without them, they become mere men, no longer holier or more learned then their subjects.
"The Kingdom of God is within you".
The residence of God is not in some building down the street with a sign outside that says church. God lives in the hearts of His people, and this is the excavating of Jesus, that will never reveal bones, but a living and vibrant resurrected Savour.
Let Easter (the pagan celebration be gone) and let the Resurrection Day of Jesus be alive- come this week as we remember and reflect what Jesus really was all about. Let us repent from our works of darkness we have lived in for too long, and turn to the life of Jesus and the Apostles, and instead of saying come here or there, let's get up and GO to the people as Jesus did. Only love conquers all.
If you want to read about real biblical archaelogical work on excavating Jesus, then I highly recommend reading the book I mentioned earlier.
Now let us excavate the "resurrected Lord and King in our hearts, in our families and in our everyday lives. For HE LIVES!
So Go forth, and take the Gospel unto all nations in Yeshua's name. Don't sit on a pew this week, share Jesus with someone by your life in word and deed, and let it be the resurrected Jesus "excavated from the dead of the building" made alive in your heart, that speaks and acts.
I serve a risen Savour, He is in the world today, you ask me how I know this, for He is in my HEART TO STAY!
Dr. J.
Second - This is the second time "The Discovery Channel" has been involved in a disputed claim about an ancient tomb, CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports. The man at the center of the previous case is now facing trial for forgery.
I do want to mention an excellent book on archaeology and the times of Jesus. This book is called, "Excavating Jesus". The teachings and times of Yeshua ( Jesus) revealed through the most important discoveries of biblical research and archaeological research. This book is authored by John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L.Reed. John is professor emeritus of Religious Studies at DePaul University, Chicago, John L. Reed is a a professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of La Verne, in California.
I absolutely love how they show what the real Kingdom of God meant for early believers and what it''s nature was. It is a far cry from the Kingdom of this world, and they explain both archaelogocally and biblically how, that even in arguing the miracles and all the things we know to be true, back in the times right after Jesus resurrection would had little affect upon the hearers of these proclamations, though true, the hearers of that time, had plenty of their gods doing fantastic things as well, Jupiter rising up from the dead, and creating the Sons of Jupiter, the Caesars of Rome were also often claimed to be seen rising up from the ashes and ascending to the heavenlies, etc. These things are not explained to take from Jesus and Christians but to explain that when Paul and Peter and others debated with the pagans, and the Jews, these things unlike today, were not the grounds from which they won converts.
Though intellectual exercise was a part ot the debate, the thing that set Paul and Peter and all the Apostles apart, was their community of love, and understanding, their love of peace and love expressed to all men in Christ. This alone set the world upside down for Jesus in their times. It also goes to show how scripturally Jesus avoided leaving a place, a home, or a residence that could be exclaimed as the place of the Kingdom of God, and how Constantine thwarted Jesus purposes through the building of the Holy Sepulchre and his insistence on building Temples and buildings for worship in the style of the Romans and the Greeks for their gods for the new state-religion subjects to worship in.
In the chapter entitled "How to Bury A King", I quote,
"We do not ask whether Constantine constructed the Holy Sepulcher on the right spot. Yes, probably. We ask whether his construction was appropriate to Jesus Kingdom of God, to that Jewish ideal of a covental Kingdom on earth as in heaven. No, probably. Above all, we ask and question not so much how Constantine celebrated the sepulcher of Jesus, but how Christianity celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The truth to be told, Jesus never wanted any place on earth to be called, a holy place, what Jesus sought was to present a holy place, that had no geographical boundaries, no buildings, but a people that would promulgate through their living, their community with one another, outside of buildings, and geographical boundaries the love of God for men and women alike.
Jesus as it is written in the New Testament, went out from Peter's home or his mother in laws home, he did not bid the people "come to me where I am", he went to where they were, the byways, the alleys, the streets, the woods, the gardens, their homes, and told his Disciples the same, GO FORTH, never did he say "come to my house", but he went and made His house "where ever two or more are gathered in his name" without the elaborate ornate buildings that were later created by Constantine, without the authoritarian attitude these buildings contributed to. He went out and was a Servant not a Master. The Apostles did the same. They could have remained at home, went to the Temple and said come here if you want to hear about Jesus. No, we find even Paul seeking a place of prayer alongside a river stream, where there might be others as well seeking the solitude of nature for meditation on the Lord and to be in prayer, and Lydia, was found there. God had already set her heart apart for salvation, and Paul explained the communal - Kingdom of God to her, and not long afterward, we don't find Lydia going to the Temple, but rather prayer beginning in her household at home, and others were reached for Jesus as well. She went forth I imagine just as Paul and Peter and all of the Apostles did, not finding a welcome in the Temples often that men had built, they sought people whereever they were, at work, at play, at debate, at roadside or river side. They found people, whose hearts God had been prepared for the lesson of the Kingdom of God. I imagine she returned many times on the Sabbath day to the river and shared the Good News and then would bring them to her house to explain Our Savior, his love, his sacrifice, his resurrection by lifestyle and community of love one for another. They each came to understand, that God did not dwell in some building, not even Lydias house, but in her heart and the hearts of others like her.
The Apostles knew that a debate over just the miracles of Jesus, or even the resurrection ( though the most important tenant of our belief) would not lead a person to Jesus, they had their own gods who as well, had risen from the grave, they had their miracles and the great heroes of old. The Apostles approached others rather with the community of life that was changed for them, from hater to lover, from killer to a man of peace. Paul was a changed man, and the Kingdom of God was real in his heart, and this heart, not the argument brought people into "the Way".
It was the very reality of Christ alive in his people, their changed lives, their deeds, the actions, their love for one another, that gave precedence and reality over the pagan gods and their stories of their resurrection.
It was life changing - it had to be true this Jesus who went about doing good was really resurrected, for the people could see it in the hearts and lives of the believers. They didn't find it in a building, and I imagine, the seekers by the river side like Lydia had come to some conclusion of that or why else would they not been in their perspective temples worshipping and praying to their gods. Especially Jews on a Sabbath.
We stand in our Sepulchres, and say "come", while Jesus said "Go"!
When will the institutional church so set by Constantine and his followers through the ages, awake to the fact that what they present is nothing more than the same kingdoms the Caesars and Greek gods, and all pagan beliefs present.
The same temples, the same gods, the same priestly grab and authoritarianism.
Jesus wanted us to pray, "Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is heaven". In heaven there is no Temple for his people are his Temple, and his Son is the High Priest, and He is the Light, the Eternal Light that no man will ever see darkeness in. There is no need for sunlight there. He alone provides all the light needed. There is no need for sacrifice there for his compassion is provided instead. There is no need of tithe there, for He is the giver of all things and what could we ever return to Him that is already His in the first place. There are only His people, His priesthood of believers of all races, all nations, all that declare Jesus is Lord.
We live in a period of thought influenced by the Enlighment, these people lived in pre-enlightment times.
Their argument for Jesus was never a place to go, a person to see, or hear, but the very life of the resurrected Jesus within them, this is what brought sinners to grace, this is what saved the worse of pagans and gave them eternal life. This was the Kingdom of God come down to earth.
Not the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem that Constantine built, not any supposed home that Jesus lived in, and surely not found in a building on this earth made by the hands of men. Even Jesus had them all confused and upset when he clarified that the only building he was talking about tearing down was his body to be raised again in 3 days. The Pharisees were so carnal in thinking like the institutional church, they couldnt see beyond the place, the building that Herod built, as anything else being referred to as a temple.
Paul clarified this when he said, the body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul was not referring to a local, tax deductible, incorporated, entity of some people, under the State, meeting in a certain building anywhere. God has no other house, but His people and their heart, and the lie has stolen this for so long from His people, they have lost touch with "Christ in you, the hope of the glory".
Acts: 7:47-50 Stephen preaching to those then who still sought a place or a building as the place where God was to dwell. He states with all clarity that cannot be misunderstood. He quotes directly from scripture from the Prophets.
47- But it was Solomon who built a house for Him *(referring to the Creator Yahweh)
48- However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:
HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET;
WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME? says the LORD:
Or what place is their now for my repose?
WAS IT NOT MY HANDS THAT MADE ALL THESE THINGS?
You men are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just what your fathers did.
It was very short after this, that they stoned Stephen for speaking the truth of the Kingdom of God. These promulgators of Temple worship with their high priest lifted up rocks and just as they killed Jesus and the prophets and all those who came to bring Israels' heart to the Father, they murdered him. They gnashed at their teeth at him, as so often clergymen do that at me, when I tell them in love the truth of the Gospel and how far they have wondered away from this truth.
Constantine in my opinion did the same thing. He commited murder of the truth of what the definition of what the EKKLESIA OF GOD is, but just as Christ would not remain in the grave, the EKKLESIA has been coming out, greater in numbers these days since before the time of the early (KIRKE) church fathers begin to whittle away at the truth of the Gospel and the foundation of Christ and the Apostles. These promulgaters that God lives in a building, have done exactly what the Pharisees did, they replaced the Word of God with the traditions of men.
They gnash their teeth at me, they want me stoned for telling the truth, less they lose their place of power and money, and their very substanance for groceries, debt, fine cars, nice homes, and paid for trips. They would hate the most to lose their title, Pastor, Priest, Bishop, etc. for these things are holy and precious to them and without them, they become mere men, no longer holier or more learned then their subjects.
"The Kingdom of God is within you".
The residence of God is not in some building down the street with a sign outside that says church. God lives in the hearts of His people, and this is the excavating of Jesus, that will never reveal bones, but a living and vibrant resurrected Savour.
Let Easter (the pagan celebration be gone) and let the Resurrection Day of Jesus be alive- come this week as we remember and reflect what Jesus really was all about. Let us repent from our works of darkness we have lived in for too long, and turn to the life of Jesus and the Apostles, and instead of saying come here or there, let's get up and GO to the people as Jesus did. Only love conquers all.
If you want to read about real biblical archaelogical work on excavating Jesus, then I highly recommend reading the book I mentioned earlier.
Now let us excavate the "resurrected Lord and King in our hearts, in our families and in our everyday lives. For HE LIVES!
So Go forth, and take the Gospel unto all nations in Yeshua's name. Don't sit on a pew this week, share Jesus with someone by your life in word and deed, and let it be the resurrected Jesus "excavated from the dead of the building" made alive in your heart, that speaks and acts.
I serve a risen Savour, He is in the world today, you ask me how I know this, for He is in my HEART TO STAY!
Dr. J.
The Great Heresy Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth
Quoting from "The AnaBaptist Story by Dr. Stan Nelson, senior professor of Theology, it would do the institutional church well to realize how they became what they are, why they are failing and if they truly have anything of the New Testament Word and Spirit left in them, it behooves them to understand Church History. I am by heart a "Radical Reformationist".
Thus were the AnaBaptist when they came about in the time of the Reformation.
Now how did it begin: The Church Fallen - quoted from Dr. Nelson.
There was an almost imperceptible, gradual process that took place in the Patristic era that changed the nature of the church. When one looks at the end-result of this process in the Roman Catholic Church and considers its New Testament starting point, the vast difference becomes apparent.
Two major factors moved the ekklesia (the termed used for the New Testament people of God) to the "church" (the institutionalized organization), and these factors were interrelated. The factors were the development of a formal legal authority and the development of the sacramental view of salvation around the New Testament ordinances.
The sacramental view of salvation developed around both the Lord's Supper and Baptism. The saving grace of Christ would be experienced in these rites controlled by the church. In our discussion I will center only on baptism because of the Anabaptists thesis that baptism is an initiatory rite for entering the ekklesia. If time were available both ordinances would receive scrutiny.
1. The Institutionalizing of the Ekklesia
It was said that "Christianity had two great battles to fight in the Patristic era. The first battle was without--the battle against persecution. The second battle was within--the battle on discipline and purity. It has been said that one battle was won and the other battle was lost, but I want to disagree with that conclusion--I believe that both battles were lost. The church that won the battle over persecution was not the same church as the New Testament ekklesia. The ekklesia had already changed; the church's very nature had been altered. Here are the reasons for this changed nature:
a. Syncretism--The Problem of Growth
In the first three centuries, it is estimated that between 5 and 10 million people were won to Christianity. This was a tenth of the Roman Empire. Gal. 4:4 needed to be understood as more than just the New Testament. Sometimes the church would triple overnight. The need for leaders was great. Early leaders in the church were from Judaism, but later Judaism rejected the Christian message. The Judaic leaders had an Old Testament background and were able to perceive and to interpret the New Testament message, but the leadership that came from the Gentile converts had a pagan background and had understandings that were vastly different.
The Gentile converts, being from a different culture, lacked an understanding and means of communicating the gospel. How long does it take for Christianity to filter into the sub strata of a culture? I don't know. But the resulting syncretism had two emphases--some church rites carried with them magical overtones, and the external signs of church membership were magnified.
b. Purism--The Problem of Discipline
A large number of persecutions transpired in this time period before legality was offered to the church. Most of these persecutions were local, but there were two exceptions which had Empire-wide overtones:
- The Decian persecution in 250, which produced the Novations.
- The Diocletian persecution in 303, which produced the Donatists.
The question that arose from these persecutions was how the church should deal with the lapsed. Should they serve the church as members? Should they be served the Lord's meal? Should they have full membership as if they had never renounced their faith? Suppose one's husband had died because of faithfulness to Jesus Christ and another's husband had renounced Christ under the same persecution, was freed, and later came back to the church proclaiming a faith in Christ? How should the people of God deal with the matter? How will the widow of a martyr feel toward the lapsed? What is the role of the lapsed in the church?
The answers to those questions affected the very nature of the church. Augustine used the wheat and tares analogy (Mt. 13:24-30) as a basis for his solution.
c. Civil Religion--The Problem of Dominance
The Edict of Milan (313) made Christianity a legal religion. When Theodosius I made Christianity mandatory in 380, he required the baptism of every person a rite of citizenship to the Empire. Where at one time no Christian could serve in the military because of their allegiance to a someone greater than Caesar, now every soldier had to be Christian to serve--a remarkable change.
- Leadership in the churches was now based on organizational skills and loyalty to the state, where before Constantine leadership had been based on spiritual gifting.
- The persecuted church becomes the persecuting church. Those not professing Christianity were often debarred from offices.
The statement "the church exists only where the bishop is present" became the teaching of the church, and represented a fundamental difference with the New Testament "where two or three ..." (Mt. 18:20). This position may be traced back to Cyprian, but was actualized after Constantine. Its purpose was to correct and prohibit heresy, and in turn it became a heresy itself, at least from the Anabaptist point of view.
d. Authoritarianism--The Problem of Schism
Two forces were at work here. The first was the modeling of the church after the government, and the second was the development of church leaders having a mode of authority originating in the culture. This use of authority intruded into the spiritual organism and brought a different kind of nature to the church--rank and formal authority of jurisdiction. The church had become a hierarchy.
2. The Sacramentalizing of the Ekklesia
When the ordinances were conceived of as a sacrament, a fundamental change in the structure of the ekklesia took place. I would love to use the word "sacrament" here if it meant what it did when it was first used, an "oath of loyalty" (Tertullian).
- The use of "sacrament" as a conveyer of God is a failure to understand the doctrine of grace. Grace conveyed through specially ordained channels becomes the norm of the church in the post-Constantinian period. This approach suggested an impersonal and quasi-material force or sub-personal pneumatic power conveyed through ordained channels. Grace in the New Testament, on the other hand, was understood as being the initiative of God.
- The use of "sacrament" as a conveyer of God is a failure to understand the doctrine of baptism.
- Baptism as a conveyer of God has Christ's baptismal waters filled with a sanctifying potency.
- Bishops began praying over water before baptism so the waters would have the same potency for those they baptized.
- Infant baptism developed next. Baptism in the New Testament and in much of the Patristic period had a required catechism, but this cannot be done with infant baptism.
Infant baptism obscured the New Testament doctrine of baptism. Water baptism was viewed as a cleansing from original sin and confirmation as a means to conveying the Holy Spirit. Division between catechism and baptism developed as a way to handle the problem. Augustine fleshed out the doctrine, relating it to original sin. Under the impetus of Augustine infant baptism spread throughout the church. From the fifth century on, infant baptism became the general practice of the church. It was only challenged by a few isolated communities.
Baptism, through its application to infants, progressively lost its New Testament significance until it could be used as a mere outward sign without any inward spiritual significance. At the time of the Anabaptists, it was primarily a mark of citizenship.
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I have and still continue to oppose the institutionalization of God's Ekklesia (his called out one's) to what it has become and has been for 1900 years, every since Constantine.
The earliest (institutional) church Fathers, such as Origen and Cyprius and more became the great downfall of everything Christ set to establish within the heart of men - not in a building, an organization or any institution. First, there was the setup of the Nicolations ( Clergy over Laity) The declaration that the Bishop was equal to God, then their was the church-state union to form the "City of God", then the sacraments - Baptism, Communion and anything that was to practiced became only the right of the bishop to perform. Then there were the qualifications to be a Christian, a complete year of catechism training and on and on- until you had Popery at it's height. Then the reformation came along, and all that was provided out of this was the right for people to read the Bible for themselves, and determine what the Lord had to say to them. But less, the laity get too smart, the Pope was exchanged for a Pastor - the same power structure as that of the Bishop/Pope. Martin Luther did nothing to change the heresy of popery but to add a Bible that could be read by the people, but the Pastor still held the magic wand in his hand for it's interpretation, the giving of sacraments, etc.
Thus the AnaBaptist were born- not only a people that could see clearly where all of it came from but a people that wanted to return to the teachings of Jesus and hold onto the traditions of the Apostles rather than that of men. There were sitters rights where upon any meeting, anyone could speak- because they were all of the priesthood of believers. They would only Baptize converts, they believed in the revelation of the Word to each believer. They stood but not for long, for just as the Judaizers, and the Church-State union had destroyed the very teachings and love of Christ with the conquering under the sign of the cross, these people were soon totured and killed by the reformers themselves. Calvin and Luther hated them. They especially hated them for sitters rights doctrine. The AnaBaptist believed in the Sermon on the Mount, they were non resistant and believed not in war or fighting back with their enemies just as Jesus did, so it made it easy for the Babylonian institutional church reformers to destroy them as easy as it was for Origen and Cyprius, Augustine and all the other supposed church fathers to change and distort the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to begin to whittle at the truths laid down by the foundation of Christ and the building of the Apostles.
Today, the same heresy continues and I speak out about it constantly and I am persecuted as they and the early Christians were. I am made to be a second citizen Christian and even a Cultist for my strong belief in the Word of God over the traditions of men. Isn't this what the Lord said, would happen, "if they persecuted me, they will persecute you".
Who was he talking about but nothing less than those same Temple and High Priest worshippers then that persecuted Him, the institution of Judaism. The church folks, their Pastors, etc.
There has been over 1900 years since the church went wayward, why does it seem to continue with it's hypocrisy when church history proves it's origens are pagan, yet they continue to say they are the true EKKLESIA while denying all that Jesus ever taught in truth. Why, because it has always been easier for men to box god up in a building, and place his power in one individual who could interpret or commune with god, while the worshippers recieved their blessings and cursings and instruction from a high priest.
The greatest misnomer has been to call Christianity, Judeo-Christian beliefs.
Paul's fight was constantly against those trying to make it Judeo- Christianity- there is nothing Judeo about it, as presented by Christ. He was as anti-Judeo (the religion of the Jews then as it remains today) as could be. Thus they killed Him- Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Messiah, was crucified at the hands of the church leaders and church people of His time. I am not being anti-semitic against the race of Hebrews, for we all have come out of the loins of Abraham and that would be counter to my own self preservation. I am branch on the tree. I am telling you, that Paul was well aware and John, and Peter and the rest, knew exactly what would happen when they were dead and gone, so they told the believers to hold onto the traditions they had handed down to them, and not to be swayed by the Judaizers and the Gnostics. The wolves were waiting in the corridors and they rushed the halls the minute the Apostles were dead and created a heresy which is still alive on Planet Earth.
What heresy you ask? The heresy that God still lives in buildings and has a high priest for each one to do the sacraments, interpret the scrolls and speak for God. It is heresy and will remain so.
I speak the truth in love, I know many individuals that are clergymen and I love them with all my heart, and makes me sad, when so many of them, have even admitted to me, they know that what they do is really heretical, because they have studied church history as well as I have, they have studied the Talmud and the Kabbala and the Torah and they have read the church fathers writings, and studied biblical archaelogy and know the truth, but because this is their profession and tithing propagates the system, they can't escape the Temple/Priest role less their familes starve or they are unableto find work with their hands.The money system and the power keeps it all propped up and running, this is why the institutional church will go on, because, it runs like the world and is the world in it's practice and anything that bows down to the enemy will be successful in this world. To come out of her - would be mean sacrificing filthy lucre, and power and recognition. The heart of the evil would have to be cut out first, and that evil is the lie of tithing. Once the money is gone, the leaders will leave, once the building is gone, the people will meet in their homes. God forbid that, that could lead to a bunch of Christians having real fellowship and real communion and real prayer and real exhortation, and real love, and real worship by their lives exemplifying Christ. In other words, ASSEMBLY would become real as it was real for the earliest believers, who went from house to house, breaking bread and fellowshipping, and praying for one another. True elders, teachers and pastors would be revealed with a servants heart and not a postiional title. All with out any human leader ( ruling over others) and the only PRIEST they need is Jesus, our high priest for eternity. As real as it was for the AnaBaptist before the persecutors came along. Yes, the heresy is still alive on Planet Earth. I remain a RADICAL REFORMATIONIST and I am humbled by it, as it took the Father a very long time to make a modern day Baptist into what I am today, and He isn't finished with me yet, but I press on to the goal.
Dr. J
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