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reviews/jwo-reviews/101-jesus-on-church-structure.html
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<td valign="top" ><span>For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel. (Ezra 7:10.)</span></td>
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</div>
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<div class="moduleS1">
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<div>
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<h3>Recommendations</h3>
|
||||
<p><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
|
||||
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
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<h1><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What Does Jesus Say About Having Leaders, Teachers and Pastors?</span></strong></span></h1>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus said there is <em><strong>not to be a single leadership authority among ANY of us except Christ Himself</strong></em>! Jesus is the "sole teacher" and "sole pastor." We cannot call anyone other than Christ our teacher, leader or pastor! All such roles of teacher, leader and pastor are Jesus's roles as the King of Kings. No individual Christian is authorized to claim any such exclusive title. <strong><em>Jesus should be the only person listed</em></strong> in the bulletin as "<em><strong>the pastor</strong></em>." Keep the sole authority upon Jesus. As Jesus explained:</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">But Jesus called them unto him, and said, "Ye know that the princes of the <em><strong>Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise AUTHORITY upon them</strong></em>. But IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU: but whosoever will be great among you, <strong><em>let him be your servant</em></strong>." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A25-26&version=NIV">Matt. 20:25-26</a>.)</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. "But do not be called Rabbi [<em>i.e.</em>,<strong><em> Great One, Sir, one with a large knowledge of Bible facts, <a href="http://biblehub.com/greek/4461.htm">Strongs #4461</a></em></strong>]; for <strong><em>One is your Teacher [kathegetes]</em></strong>, and <em><strong>you are all brothers/brethren</strong></em> [<em>adelphoi</em>]. "Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. "<em><strong>Do not be called leaders [teacher][Gk kathegetes]</strong></em>; for One is your <em><strong>Leader</strong></em> [<strong><em>teacher</em></strong>][kathegetes], that is, Christ. "But the greatest among you <strong><em>shall be your servant [slave].</em></strong>” (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2023:6-11&version=NASB">Matt. 23:6-11</a>, NASB)</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[Note how both 20:25-26 and 23:6-11 have the identical phrase "shall be your servant," showing these two passages are linked. This proves anyone who takes the office / title of "leader," or "teacher" in place of Jesus over the brethren (Matt. 23:6-11) acts wrongfully -- acts improperly just as the "Gentiles who exercise dominion" over the people (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2020:25-26&version=NASB">Matt. 20:25-26</a>.) ]</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, <strong><em>one shepherd/pastor</em></strong> (Grk <em>poimen</em>)." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2010:16&version=NASB">John 10:16</a>.) Cf. Eph. 4:11 "pastor" (<em>poimen</em>)</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"But be not ye called Rabbi: for <strong><em>one is your teacher</em></strong>, and all ye are brethren...." (Matt. <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/23-8.htm">23:8</a>)(ASV)</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Nor are you to be called '<strong><em>teacher</em></strong>,' for you have one <strong><em>Teacher</em></strong>, the Christ." (Matt. <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/23-10.htm">23:10</a>, NIV)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Hence, Jesus told us we are all equal, as one family of believers -- brothers and sisters. There is nothing implied in "brethren" other than an equality among all church members. We are to serve one another, not try to lead among one another. As Rick Warren recently put it: "<em><strong>Stop leading, start serving</strong></em>." (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lghqRpblOg8">5/24/2014 You Tube</a>.) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1">What Jesus first says in Matthew 23:8 is that a Christian can never call himself Rabbi. This does not mean "Teacher" -- that is a modern meaning. Rather, this means that no Christian can expect you to address him as "Sir," "Great One" implying one who has a great degree of knowledge of "Bible facts." As <a href="http://biblehub.com/greek/4461.htm">Strong's #4461</a>, definition of Rabbi explains its meaning in Jesus' teaching-time period:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1">Rabbi</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1"> literally means, "'<span style="color: #ff0000;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1">My </span></strong></span></span><span style="color: #ff0000;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1">great</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #ff0000;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1"> one; my honorable sir</span></strong></span>.' </span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #fdfeff;"></span></span></p>
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<p class="discovery" style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 60px; background-color: #fdfeff;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>4461</strong> <em>rhabbí</em>– a rabbi; a <em>teacher-scholar</em> recognized by the Jewish public for accumulating a great number of Bible-facts, i.e. respected for his accumulation of knowledge.</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #fdfeff;"></span></span></p>
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<p class="discovery" style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 60px; background-color: #fdfeff;"><span style="font-size: large;">[<a href="http://biblehub.com/greek/4461.htm" style="color: #0092f2;">4461</a> (<em>rhabbí</em>) literally means "great in number," probably referring to the great <em>number</em> of facts (Bible knowledge) acquired by a <em>rabbi</em>. See OT 7727a (<em>rab</em>).</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: #fdfeff;"></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, this is violated whenever any brother asks you to give him any title of respect such as SIR, GREAT ONE, TEACHER, PASTOR, MINISTER, or any other word to signify that person has a "accumulated a great number of Bible facts...."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jesus then in Matthew 23:10 expressly prohibits any Christian calling himself "Teacher" by the word meaning Teacher in Greek -- kathegetes. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jesus also has told us there is only one "shepherd" (pastor) who leads us. As Amos Love correctly said:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">"After trying for 1700 years, 'clergy - laity' still doesn’t work. Jesus said <strong><em>we are 'All' brethren</em></strong>. Matt 23:8 -10." (<a href="http://headhearthand.posterous.com/leaders-who-last">Amos Love</a> April 26, 2010.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">If you feel Jesus has called you to lead others, then isn't that call only legitimate if it is Jesus, your pastor, who is engaging you as "Staff Assistant to the Pastor Jesus" to serve Jesus. Keep the focus upon Jesus.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">When you teach, who is the teacher? You, or Jesus by the Holy Spirit bringing Jesus' words to your mind and those of your listeners?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jesus said the Holy Spirit coming in Jesus' name will bring to remembrance Jesus' words. Those words will teach us. Our teacher should not be some official clergy or recognized 'divines' or other 'brothers' who claim an office or title or wear robes to distinguish themselves. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> None among us should have a superiority in an office within Christ's true church over us: "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will <em><strong>send in my name</strong></em>, will <em><strong>teach you all things</strong></em> and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2014:26&version=NIV">John 10:26</a>, NIV.) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jesus always is the "<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">sole pastor</span></strong>" (John 10:16) and "<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">sole teacher</span></strong>" (Matt 23:8,10), as He said</span>.</p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So your teaching ministry is what? You are trying to help members recall the words of Jesus with the Holy Spirit helping the church members. You cannot call yourself the "teacher" therefore of a Bible class, or boast of your status outside as "Professor of New Testament Studies" among your fellow believers. The only position you hold among believers, in these examples, is "Teaching Assistant to Rabbi / Teacher Jesus," or "Bible Study Facilitator."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I want to address pastors right here. If every time you got up, and began calling yourself hereafter "Assistant to Pastor Jesus," or "Teaching Assistant to Rabbi Jesus," that would take some wind out of your sails, right away. Wouldn't it? You would naturally be more humble than when you can tell others you are a "pastor" or "teacher" of a congregation. Your new found humble title would force you to bring Jesus' words into every sermon, for after all, your title emphasizes Jesus is the sole teacher and sole pastor.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Luther Originally Agreed There Can Be No Superior In the Church But Jesus</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As Luther who founded the Reformation in 1517 AD also wrote in<em> </em>1523:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Among Christians there is <em><strong>no superior but Christ himself</strong></em>, and <em><strong>him alone</strong></em>. What kind of authority can there be where <em><strong>all are equal </strong></em>and have the same right, power, <img src="http://bks9.books.google.com/books?id=cHvf_xp6V8IC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE70RBWmQJpL356VFWbxJBiRtA4WX-4Aql6Rji8K4Urk56yn-waWrvlYsW8EeSdIbluGq3C_Ik4eDjYbWtuWbF5u1A4DbL1IVZ0INXyDnTWqXvMwRiwRvxxoWO97bYZ8kDQxVH3Ov" alt="Front Cover" style="float: right;" />possession and honor, and where <em><strong>no one desires to be the other's superior</strong></em>, but each the other's subordinate. Where there are such people, one could not establish authority even if he wanted to, since in the nature of things<em><strong> it is impossible to have superiors where no one is willing or able to be superior</strong></em>. Where there are no such people [<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>i.e.</em>, no one willing to just all be equal], however, there are no real Christians either.</span></span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(Martin Luther, <em>Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed</em> (1523) in Martin Luther, <em>Selected Writings: 1517-1520</em> (Ed. Theodore Tippert)(Fortress Press, 2007) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=cHvf_xp6V8IC&lpg=RA3-PA307&ots=4khwrQvGSD&dq=%22Among%20Christians%20there%20is%20no%20superior%20but%20Christ%20himself%22&pg=RA3-PA307#v=onepage&q=%22Among%20Christians%20there%20is%20no%20superior%20but%20Christ%20himself%22&f=false">307</a>; See also 45 Luther's Works 75, 117 (Walther I. Brandt, 1956).<br /></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">How amazing it is Luther taught there are no Christians present in a congregation when the group agrees to make some human their single superior. That is how fundamental Luther viewed Jesus' principles when Luther was battling the presupposition that priests and popes were legitimate authorities. (Sadly, as we shall see in the Study Notes below after this article, once Luther won a treaty of peace with the pope for his new church, the temptation for power later seduced Luther himself. He become a new pope of his new church. He appointed ministers who operated as de facto superiors. By Luther's own criteria, there were no more Christians present in such churches who suffered such a change.)</span></p>
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<h3><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">Error of Structured Hierarchy Among Equal Brothers</strong></span></h3>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In agreement is Dave Lililgren's 2007 article entitled "Pastor Jesus" in which we read his valid comments on Matthew 20:25-26:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In verse 25, Jesus describes “<strong><em>secular</em></strong>” leadership by using terms “rulers of the Gentiles” and “their great ones.” This type of leadership is based upon one’s position (“rulers”) in government and upon their greatness (“great ones” could also refer to their credentials) in exercising influence over others. It’s all about control (“lord it over them”) and the exercise of authority. Secular leadership is hierarchical, from top to bottom, with a “chain of command.”</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Tragically, Jesus in verse 25 is <em><strong>describing the leadership structure of many churches today</strong></em>. We have brought in “baggage” from the world (“the Gentiles” literally means “the nations”) and have <strong><em>organized Christ’s church after a pagan model</em></strong>, replete with “boards” and “chains of command” and CEO’s (a.k.a., “senior pastors”). But <strong>Jesus emphatically states that this type of church government is wrong</strong>: “It shall not be so among you” (Matt. 20:26a). This is not to be the way leadership functions in Christ’s kingdom. (Lilligren, "<a href="http://www.cwcfamily.com/dave/pastor_jesus_part_2.htm">Pastor Jesus</a>" (2007).)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">Luther began the reformation in 1517 with this same view in mind: to liberate us from all ecclesiastical authority except the authority of Jesus. Luther wrote in his e</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large;">ssay,' Freedom of a Christian,' which we find in <em>Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings</em> (Dillenberger, editor)(Anchor Books, 1962) at page</span><span style="font-size: large;"> 65:</span></span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Injustice is done those words 'priest,' 'cleric,' 'spiritual,' 'ecclesiastic,' when they are transferred from all Christians to those few who are now by a <em><strong>mischievous usage</strong></em> called 'ecclesiastics.'"</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Our True Obligation Solely To Submit to Christ Within The Church</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">God commands instead we submit only to Christ. Through Moses long ago God told us one day we would be required to obey the Christ -- apparently as God's most superior voice of all time. We read in Deuteronomy - the prophecy of "The Prophet" which passage Peter in Acts 2 said applies to Jesus -- as follows:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and <em><strong>I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him</strong></em>. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2018:17-18&version=NIV">Deut 18:17-19 NIV</a>)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This role for Jesus was implied in God's voice from heaven in the New Testament. At Jesus' transfiguration, a voice speaks from heaven and says of Jesus "<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">listen to Him</span></strong>." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%209:7&version=NIV">Mark 9:7</a>; Matt 17:5, transfiguration.) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">When any of us take the role of a single superior over other Christians, we are pushing aside Jesus who God commands be given that role as the Teacher and the Preacher. We all must listen to Jesus.</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;"> Those who teach and preach are an obvious necessity to communicate Jesus' words. However, to call yourself 'the pastor,' 'the preacher' or 'the teacher' or similar title is a seduction to power -- a power that God exclusively gave the one whose words you quote</span>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Sadly for Luther, in the end, as discussed in a post-script note below, Luther succumbed to the temptation of earning riches by creating an ecclesiastical structure with himself and his friends in charge. To use Luther's own words, he mischievously placed himself above other Christians with a right to command wages.</span></p>
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<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Subterfuge Of Jesus's Principles By The Label of 'Minister'</span></strong></span></h3>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What about if we simply call a single poweful-church leader "the minister?" Does this label change the substance of what we are doing, and thus avoid Jesus' prohibition? <em>NO. </em>That would be playing a word-game, raising form over substance.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Such nomenclature is simply a brazen circumvention of Jesus' commands. It seeks to create an office which represents a single powerful church-leader or teacher or pastor known as The Minister at X, Y Z church. An unequal "brother" who has taken Jesus' post among us.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The standard 'minister' position does not simply humbly serve with the rest of us as all his equal, as we all know from experience. Rather, the minister is always <em><strong>alone authorized to speak and teach</strong></em>. None of us can contribute during the sermon. <strong><em>No one can question or dispute the minister as he talks</em></strong>. We treat the minister as an oracle above us. Finally, no one but the 'minister' <strong><em>gets paid for his time</em></strong> in the service (except a few other church-leaders), thus giving the minister an unequal honor above the general members within the entire Church.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, this isolating of one individual to hold power over us and command wages under the title of "Minister" is a completely dishonest skirting of Jesus' meaning.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It subverts Jesus' role. As Frank Viola and George Barna recently wrote in <em><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Cu8BGQAACAAJ">Pagan Christianity</a></em><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Cu8BGQAACAAJ"> </a> (Tyndale: 2008) at 75:</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[T]he Protestant order of worship represses mutual participation and the growth of Christian community. It puts a choke hold on the functioning of the body of Christ by <strong><em>silencing its members</em></strong>. There is absolutely no room for anyone to give a word of exhortation, share an insight, start or introduce a song, or spontaneously lead a prayer. You are<strong><em> forced to be a muted, staid pewholder</em></strong>! You are prevented from being enriched by the other members of the body as well as being able to enrich them yourself.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Viola explains he was involved in a home church which was a weekly gathering and completely spontaneous in starting up hymns, prayers, readings, etc. Viola says when you operate this way, the headship of Christ emerges. When it is lacking, Jesus' role as leader is suppressed:</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[T]he Protestant order of worship <strong><em>strangles the headship of Jesus Christ</em></strong>. The entire service is directed to one person. You are limited to the knowledge, gifting and experience of one member of the body--the pastor. Where is the freedom for our Lord Jesus to speak through His body at will? Where in the liturgy may God give a brother or sister a word to share with the whole congregation? The order of worship allows for no such thing. <strong><em>Jesus Christ has no freedom to express Himself through His body at His discretion</em></strong>. He too is<strong><em> rendered a passive spectator</em></strong>. <em>Id</em>. at 76.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">To support our ignoring Jesus's command, many people complain that operating without a formal leader or pastor is impractical. One responds: "I couldn't imagine a church run without some order."<a href="http://biblicalthought.com/blog/all-church-government-is-unbiblical/"><sup>1</sup></a></span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><a href="http://biblicalthought.com/blog/all-church-government-is-unbiblical/"></a> But you can have order without a single formal leader / pastor / teacher aside from Jesus. And why would we <strong><em>scoff at our Lord Jesus's words</em></strong> without trying what He says? Here is my experience proving it can be done.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #000000;" data-mce-mark="1">If you need titles to remind you of each member's limited role and yet authorize some to moderate the group's activities, you can have multiple Staff Assistants to Jesus in your church (who are rotated) who assist Jesus' service as pastor over the membership. Order is always possible without a single superior other than Jesus to moderate.</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">My Experience With Only Jesus As Pastor</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">When I lived in Costa Rica as a missionary in 1998-2002 (still technically a conservative Presbyterian but with Baptist-evangelical ideas as my predominant viewpoint), I regularly attended a Pentecostal English-speaking church on Sunday. Missionary work was something you did the rest of the week.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">One of our church members was Gary. He told a group of us who lived near his home that the notion of modern pastors was unbiblical. Our sub-group who hung out a lot with Gary then read a book he offered that explained this. I was not fully convinced. However, I was willing to try out "Gary's idea." Each Wednesday, we met at a different person's home for communion, worship-singing and prayer. No one was in charge. Whoever's home served as host, that couple was responsible for making sure the communion table was prepared. Each of us brought food and gave it to the host couple for the post-service lunch. It was great and worked completely in an orderly manner.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Significantly, we always had a<em><strong> chair for Jesus</strong></em>. We believed Jesus was the sole teacher and sole pastor. That symbolic chair reminded us to never get carried away as an individual with speaking. We began every service inviting Jesus to be there with us, as He promised where "<strong><em>two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am among them</em></strong>." (Matt. <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/18-20.htm">18:20</a>.) And we also made expressions of submission to Jesus as Master, recalling that Jesus told us what brings Him and the Father to reside among us:</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">If a man loves me, he will <strong><em>keep my word</em></strong>, and my Father will love him, and<strong> we will come to him and make our home with him</strong> (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2014:23&version=KJV">John 14:23</a>).</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then after worship-singing and initial prayers, men and women, including husbands and wives, asked the group about what a passage meant. Any of us could raise a question about a passage which they had been studying privately. We read it, studied it, and commented on it. Nothing was out of turn. It was spiritually dominated by the Holy Spirit's presence with us. God was moving among us.</span></p>
|
||||
<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Frank Viola's Similar Experience</span></strong></span></h3>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Frank Viola in his chapter on the modern order of worship shared his similar experience in what he calls "open meetings under the headship of Chirst." (Viola, <em>Pagan Christianity</em> (2008) at 78.) He explained such a meeting "not too long ago" of about 30 of us "gathered together in a home...." Some spontaneously went to the center of the room and sang a song. Quickly the entire church was singing, arms around one another. Then someone began another song. They sang several songs sometimes repeating them. Some people turned the words of the songs into prayers. "On several occasions, a few of the members exhorted the church in relation to what we had just sung." <em>Id.,</em> at 78. Then they all sat down. Quickly a woman stood up and shared what the Lord had showed her the past week. After she sat down, a man got up and shared a portion of scripture, and exalted the Lord Jesus through it, etc. <em>Id.</em></span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Viola points out the same impact this had on myself in the home church we worshipped within in Costa Rica:</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It was so...edifying that it became evident to everyone that <strong>someone was indeed leading the meeting</strong>. But He was not visible. It was <strong>the Lord Jesus Christ!</strong> His headship was being manifested among His people. We were reminded again that He in fact is alive...alive enough to direct His church. <em>Id.</em>, at 79.</span></p>
|
||||
<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Why Do We Reject This?</span></strong></span></h3>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What is the cause of our misconceptions against this kind of church? It is our modern concept of the church as a<strong><em> structured</em></strong> <strong><em>organization</em></strong> like modern corporations that causes us to want 'leaders' and 'pastors' other than Jesus. However, a truly vibrant Christian community is one that does not need formally present leaders /pastors nor official buildings. The need for walls should not dictate a structure at odds with Jesus' words. As Jesus said of the Temple, one day it would be gone, but God wants those who worship in spirit and truth. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%204:21-24&version=KJV">John 4:21-24</a>.) Walls are sometimes useful. Teaching is useful. Pastoring is useful. But commanding figures called Teachers and Pastors and Leaders (aka Ministers) other than Christ Himself are contrary to Christ's direction.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Church Multiplication Association at its website explains my own experience and their desire to obey Jesus's words in what they regard as the "most ignored" passage from Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In our own mission work we use only the terms "hermano" (brother), and "hermana" (sister) for everyone. We try to be very careful to <strong>not give the impression that some of us are somehow more important</strong>, or "more called" than others. In any of our meetings ANYONE is welcome, even those meetings of a sensitive nature. We don't want to do anything that would give an impression that some are more qualified or more important to deal with matters than others. As a result, <em><strong>our poorer, uneducated brethren are often used of God to accomplish extraordinary things as they are encouraged to use their spiritual gifting</strong></em>, rather than something they have been made to feel inferior about through no fault of their own. (J. Guy Muse, missionary in Ecuador, "<a href="http://www.cmaresources.org/article/the-most-ignored-words-of-jesus">The Most Ignored Words of Jesus.</a>")</span></p>
|
||||
<h2 class="p3"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Paul & Barnabas' Differing Views</strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So where did we get the idea of multiple pastors, ministers, and other officers lording over us? Paul.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul says "And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, <strong><em>some pastors </em></strong>(shepherds, Greek <em><strong>poimenas</strong></em>) and teachers...." (Eph. 411.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But Jesus said to the contrary: "And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, <em><strong>one shepherd</strong></em> (Greek <strong>poimen</strong>)" (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2010:16&version=KJV">John 10:16</a>.). Jesus uses the same Greek word for <em>shepherd/pastor</em> as Paul, but the singular while Paul uses the plural. Jesus' point is there should be<strong><em> no more than one</em></strong>. Paul's use of the plural is to convey a contradictory idea that it is perfectly ok to have multiple pastors.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And where do we get the idea that anyone but Jesus can serve as a leader over us too?</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"For though you have <strong><em>countless leaders</em></strong> [paidagogous, lit. <em>leaders</em>] in Christ ...." <a href="http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/4-15.htm">1Cor.4:15</a></span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, Jesus said: "Neither be called leaders [kathegetai,</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"> lit. leaders -- </em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">a synonym for </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">paidagogous</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">], for you have one leader, the Christ." </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2023:10&version=AMP" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">Matt.23:10 AMP</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. (Other translations render this as "master" (</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2023:10&version=KJV" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">KJV</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">) or "director" (</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2023:10&version=YLT" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">YLT</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">).)</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And where does the idea come from that these pastors/leaders can not only lord it over us, but also can expect wages from us? Paul again.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Tim.%205:17&version=KJV">1 Tim. 5:17</a>,<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span>Paul wrote: "The elders who <strong><em>direct the affairs of the church </em></strong>well are worthy of <strong><em>double hono</em><em>r</em></strong>, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching." Then Paul uses a verse about not muzzling an ox, and then by nebulous logic Paul reads it to imply that churchgoers have a duty to pay the elders for their service. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Tim.%205:18&version=KJV">1 Tim. 5:18</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Finally, in<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+9%3A7-14&version=NIV"> 1 Cor. 9:14</a> (NIV) Paul bluntly says: "<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">the Lord has <em><strong>commanded</strong></em> that those who preach the gospel should<strong><em> receive their living from the gospel.</em></strong>" </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But I thought Jesus said to His disciples to </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><em>lay no cost on anyone</em></strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> they served with preaching or teaching the gospel? "Without cost you have received; </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><strong>without cost you are to give</strong></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">." (</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2010:8&version=KJV" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;">Matt. 10:8b</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.) This is intended to apply to all preaching and ministry works, for the words</span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><em> just before</em></strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> this were: "[7] And</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><strong> preach</strong></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> as you go, saying, `The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' [8a] </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><em>Heal the sick</em></strong></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large;">, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons</span>."</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Given the state of the church today, I guess Jesus' words are not important any more once Paul gave us the right to preach for financial gain!</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Similarly, Barnabas who authored Hebrews (<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/272-authorship-of-hebrews.html">according to Tertullian</a>) also contributed to the concept of powerful leaders and pastor-like figures in the church:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>Obey your leaders</em>, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your</span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> souls, as those who will give an account. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb.%2013:17&version=KJV">Heb. 13:17</a>)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But Jesus said there were not to be "leaders" in the spiritual community. (Matt. 23:6-11, quoted above.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And Jesus said we were not to have rulers among us who rule over us like Gentiles do in their assemblies. (Matt. 20:25-26.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul / Barnabas are at odds with Jesus. Whom do you follow? Barnabas or Jesus? Paul or Jesus? I choose Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The famous Tolstoy told us the same thing in his essay "The Church and State" (1891). Tolstoy contrasted the "o</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">riginal Christian doctrine in the Gospels" that dispelled formal worship structures and having formal teachers other than Christ, and then explained: </span></span><em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><strong><br /></strong></em></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">But since Christ's time, and down to ours, we find a deviation of doctrine from the foundations laid by Christ. </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This deviation <em><strong>begins ...with that lover of teaching, Paul</strong></em>: and the wider Christianity extends, the more it deviates and <em><strong>appropriates the methods of that very external worship and dogmatism the denial of which was so positively expressed by Christ. (<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/550-tolstoy-church-and-state.html">"Church or State"</a>).</strong></em></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, will we listen to Tolstoy's upbraiding us to follow Christ's teachings? Or will we stay on the path Paul created?</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was happy to find the same question well put by <a href="http://jesusfamilies.org/hot_topics/church.htm">JesusFamilies.org</a> in a recent article <em>Is 'Going to Church' Compatible with the Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth?</em> (accessed 8/30/2014):</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">First and foremost, Jesus plainly teaches that he is to be his follower's only Teacher and Leader, Master and Lord... But the deceit comes in the form of, 'Oh, but God told us through <em><strong>Paul</strong> </em>that there are leaders in between Jesus and his followers....<strong>For those not blinded by their religious Bible dogma, that would obviously make those who believe that statement followers of Paul, since Paul directly contradicts Jesus on this most important matter</strong>. ...I ask again, how many shepherds will the followers of Jesus have? Jesus says 'one'. Paul - and the religion founded on his teachings (and the rest of the Bible apart from Jesus' teachings) - says 'millions'. Who are you going to believe? (Emphasis in original).</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em> </em>I also appreciated reading a similar view in the October 2014 blog of David Brainerd:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Harwood">Philip Harwood</a> wrote in 1838, critiquing churchianity] "Christians are not free, Christianity is not a religion of free and equal brotherhood." [P. Harwood, </span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Religious Equality, a Sermon</span></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (1838) at</span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SyIHAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PA3&dq=one%20master%20even%20christ%20all%20brethren&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=one%20master%20even%20christ%20all%20brethren&f=false" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 23.4px;"> 3-4</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.]</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 23px 30px; outline: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 23.4px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em><strong>So why isn’t it???? Simple. Paul vs Jesus.</strong></em> Paul says “Obey your masters.” Jesus says “You only have one master, even Christ, and you are all brethren.” Checkmate Paulinists. The “church” is a chaos of gurus because Paul’s “authority” trip doesn’t produce anything but bad, foul, fruit. </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 23px 30px; outline: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 23.4px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I should also note, in one of the instances in the quoted text, “master” is didaskalos (teacher) and in another kathegetes (authority, leader). Jesus is both our only <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">teacher</em> and only <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">authority</em>, and only<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"> leader</em>. Anyone teaching anything about “the gospel” that isn’t directly based on his words is out of line.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 23px 30px; outline: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 23.4px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 23.4px;">Yet the Paulinists are always having “leadership” conferences to learn to be better “leaders.” Jesus is the shepherd. <em><strong>Any other “pastor” (i.e. shepherd) is climbing over the door of the sheep fold and is a thief or robber. </strong></em> Jesus said so. See John 10. (David Brainerd, "<a href="https://davidbrainerd2.wordpress.com/category/christianity-without-paul/">Without Paul would we know how to run a church?</a>" <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Christianity without Paul blog</span> (10/31/2014).)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> </p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"> </p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Battle of Britain Over This Issue</strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, in the 1550-80s, reformers in England pled to end all church hierarchy, including powerful bishops, etc. To defeat this movement, Paul was argued to have appointed Timothy a bishop (in the modern sense of a powerful leader). In retort, the anti-hierachy movement claimed Paul made Timothy only a deacon, etc. That became the focal point of a debate that ended up keeping an hierachical system despite Jesus' words condemning it. See Donna B. Hamilton, <em>Shakespeare and Politics in Protestant England</em> (U. of Ky. Press, 1992) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=LVJrs4zvoXMC&lpg=PA64&ots=-L4lfdO1dT&dq=shakespeare%20apostle%20paul&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q=shakespeare%20apostle%20paul&f=false">64</a> ("those who wanted to do away with a hierachical structure...had argued that Paul appointed Timothy to be a minister...deacon.") </span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large;">With Paul in the mix as a presumed inspired authority, the movement to return to Jesus' doctrine was doomed.</span><br /></span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Benefits From Ending Pastorates-for-Pay</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">By obeying Jesus to not pay for preaching / teaching, we will return to the norm of original Christianity. As </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Carl B. Hoch, Jr., professor of New Testament at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary states: "In New Testament days, </span><strong style="color: #494a44; line-height: 21px; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><em>leaders were normally not paid."</em></strong> <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (Carl B. Hoch, Jr.,</span><em> <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">All Things New</span></em></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large;"> (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995) at 240)</span>. </span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">By ending payments to pastors, we will go far toward dismantling the currently flawed church structure. We will put an end to the self-interest of the leaders to protect against spiritual obedience to Christ's words on this topic as well as many others.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Steve Atkerson wrote the first treatise on this modern effort to re-establish house churches. He wrote with respect to paying elders and pastors on how huge the benefits would be to the external ministry of the church by reforming to Christ's teaching:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Requiring elders to be self-supporting would </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><strong>free large sums of money currently designated for professional pastors to be used instead in support of missionaries or to help the poor</strong></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. It would also place a pastor's motives above reproach in an era of religious shysters who purposely fleece the flock in order to finance their exorbitant lifestyles (Ezekiel 34:1-6). In addition, creating a class of salaried ministers tends to </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><em>elevate them above the average believer and fosters an artificial laity/clergy distinction</em></strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. Finally, salesmen tend to be extra nice toward those to whom they hope to sell something. Hiring a career clergyman puts him in</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><strong> a similar salesman-customer relationship, and this, no doubt to some degree, affects his dealings with significant contributors (money talks).</strong></em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (Steve Atkerson, editor. </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;">Toward A House Church Theology</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (Atlanta, GA: New Testament Restoration Foundation, 1996) at 87.)</span></span></p>
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<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">When Did The Church Go Off The Rails?</span></span></h3>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Where and when did things change in the church? With one small exception at Rome, it began in the 400s AD.</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">First, Paul in the early 1st century sewed a small seed that caused a small movement at Rome by 70 AD where <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/1clement.html">Clement of Rome</a>, quoting Paul's lessons, said one had to submit to "elders" and obey them. This solution of 'obeying' rather than persuading was to resolve a "schism" in doctrine, and not an issue over sin. <em>See</em>, <em style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">The Apostolic Fathers</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (ed. Jack N. Sparks) (Thomas Nelson, 1978) at 49, section 47.) This implied the small Roman church by 70-96 AD was led by a hierarchy that dictated doctrinal issues. To gain such superiority over others, Clement haughtily claimed that he spoke by the Holy Spirit: "You will give us joy and gladness if you prove obedient to<em><strong> what we have written through the Holy Spiri</strong></em>t...." (<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>Id</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.<em>, </em>at 53, section 63.)<em><br /></em></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Other than that small exception emanating early on from Rome, you would be surprised, but it took almost 400 years to erase laymen as the primary participants in church. Thus, Pauline thinking of pastors, leaders, etc., eventually caused "pope Leo [b. 400-d.461], in an epistle to Maximus, bishop of Antioch, [to tell] him that monks or other<strong><em> laymen</em></strong>, however learned, should not be allowed to usurp the right of teaching or preaching, but <strong><em>only the priests of the Lord</em></strong> [can teach/preach]." (Samuel Cheetham, <em>A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities</em> (Burr, 1880) Vol. 2 at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=omMaAAAAYAAJ&dq=liberius%20ordered%20people%20to%20celebrate&pg=PA1686#v=onepage&q&f=false">1686</a>.)</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, was born the laity v. clergy distinction in the 5th century, and the superiority of a few over the church was formalized in violation of Jesus's words.</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">PS. Sometimes <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%205:5&version=KJV">1 Peter 5:5</a> is used to teach that 'elders' <em><strong>in a church</strong></em> are proper and we must submit to them. However, read the verse again: "Young men, in the same way be <em><strong>submissive to those who are older.</strong></em>" (NIV). Obviously, to say this is about a church organization is twisting the verse. It is simply a moral command between young and old. It is not an organizational teaching about church. It only applies in a church setting as reflective of a principle that applies both inside and outside of church meetings.</span></p>
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<h2 class="p3"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Overseer / Bishop</span></strong></span></h2>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The early church had a member known as the OVERSEER - what we today call a bishop. The early role is much different than we imagine. It comported with what Peter speaks about in 1 Peter <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20peter%205:1-4&version=ASV">5:3</a>:</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">neither as<strong><em> lording it over the charge allotted to you</em></strong>, but making yourselves examples to the flock</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Peter, I believe, was talking about the charge given a bishop. It did not include routine solitary preaching or directing others in their behavior, as we shall see.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Sozomen and various scholars claim the early bishops of Christianity <strong><em>never preached</em></strong> a sermon for the first 400 years of Christianity. At church, you prayed, read the Bible, heard exortation to obey the word, and sang. That was it! "Sozomen [says] at Rome<strong><em> neither the bishop nor any other were known to publicly preach to the public up to this time (440 A.D.)</em></strong>" (Cheetham, <em>History of Christian Antiquities</em> (1880) Vol. 2 at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=omMaAAAAYAAJ&dq=liberius%20ordered%20people%20to%20celebrate&pg=PA1687#v=onepage&q&f=false">1687</a>.) "Valesius...in corroboration of Sozomen [says] that<strong><em> no sermon by any bishop of Rome are extant before Leo the Great</em></strong> [ca. 440 A.D.]" <em>Id. </em></span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, you might read Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, but then Jesus alone gave the Sermon. Otherwise, there was no practice of any individual member of the church taking on the role of weekly sermonizing.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, Cheetham found scattered evidence that bishops were said to give sermons from time to time, but in the same church others sometimes did so also. <em>Id.</em> While Cheetham questions whether Sozomen and Valesius are completely correct, such evidence did not mean one person routinely gave the sermon in a specific church. All were equal. Anyone could speak.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Likewise Viola and Barna in <em>Pagan Christianity</em> say that the first example of routine sermonizing in the church by a solitary person -- called the bishop -- came from Clement of Alexandria in the late second century AD. <em>See </em>Viola & Barna, <em>Pagan Christianity</em> (2008) at 89.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Even so, a sermon when mentioned in the early church was far different than what we are familiar with today. Around 165 AD, a passage of scripture was read with an exhortation to obey the word. Two readings from both the OT and NT were often read. "The sermons in these times were nothing else but exposition of some part of scriptures then read, and exhortations to the people to obey the doctrines contained in them, and generally upon the lesson last read, as being freshest in their minds." As a result of up to four readings, the exhortations were often several -- "sometimes two or three at the same assembly, the presbyters first and then the bishop." (Justin Martyr, <em>First Apology</em> (162 AD) at page<a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/firstapologyofju00just"> 92</a> fn. 2.)</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, even with such minor exhortations sharing the name 'sermon,' they obviously are not the sermonizing with which we are confronted with today -- where someone with the authority of a title as pastor preaches a message where we are far from the text into commentary and one's own thoughts and ideas entering into the lesson.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Regardless, Sozomen and Valesius as well as Viola and Barna still make a good point about what was the <em>general </em>practice: no sermoniznig by a solitary individual. The exceptions are rare in the early church.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Viola and Barna say that "the <strong><em>sermon became a standard practice...by the fourth century</em></strong>." (Viola & Barna, <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Pagan Christianity</span> (2008) at 89.) They point out that this copied the strikingly similar pattern of the sophists of paganism who recruited disciples and then gave speeches on topics for a fee. <em>Id.</em></span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, the fact the prevailing church practice did not have a bishop (and no office of pastor at all) who sermonized for four centuries raises an important question. Doesn't this reveal the early church thought it improper to give a bishop (or anyone else) a position of such authority whereby he alone would be preaching / sermonizing repeatedly week after week in the church, thereby controlling thought and content of discussion?</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(Please note there was no <strong><em>office</em></strong> of pastor in the early church that survived Paul's mention of there being many 'pastors' in the churches which he promoted. See Viola & Barna, <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Pagan Christianity</span> (2008) at 110. So the only possible early 'ruling' authority to study from post-Paul history is this position of 'bishop' aka 'overseer.')</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Assuming Sozomen, Valesius, Viola and Barna are correct about <em>general</em> practices, this supports a narrow role for an overseer / bishop. It is a role that would not violate Jesus's commands, as apparently the more Christ-centric early church even understood.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">If the role of the overseer aka bishop is like a modern church secretary, the overseer sets out what might happen in an assembly meeting. The overser has no authority to control the content of those speaking. That belongs to the Lord Jesus and the movement of the spirit during prayer and communion. The group listening should interact, and then correct the one speaking by means of Berean-like testing from the Bible.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In the home-church I mentioned above we had in Costa Rica, whoever's home was the meeting place would serve as overseer of starting off prayer, communion, making sure everything was prepared for worship, etc. But we all participated<strong><em> equally at all points in the worship time</em></strong>. It was completely liberating besides spiritually strengthening to each member of our small group.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Bishop's Role in Settling Doctrinal Disputes Was Non-Binding</strong></span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In Acts 15, the Overseer of Jerusalem (James) was called upon to resolve a question of doctrine. The answer was given after consultation with the Holy Spirit, and taking testimony and holding a hearing with the apostles. All opinions were heard first. The answer obviously had to conform to Scripture. James' goal was to find that answer after careful consideration of evidence and opinions. The conclusion was then placed in a friendly letter form. <strong><em>It was not an edict that threatened expulsion of anyone who did not agree</em></strong>. It did not say it was<em><strong> binding</strong></em>. The goal obviously was to let the probable view of God flow through the letter by asking for as much input from other believers as possible. In this way, the Overseer does not assume any authority above and apart from the Lord Jesus. But such an opinion-letter reflected that the bishop could serve as a peacemaker--a role Jesus would approve.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What importance is there that Peter and the other eleven apostles stay out of the dispute? They provide testimony but do not venture any imprimature above the bishop James's ruling. The answer is we must infer James simply rendered an opinion as an elder to try to quell disturbance in the church -- as a peacemaker. His letter's<strong><em> authority depended upon its reasonableness and spiritual correctness</em></strong>. James did not decree that it must be followed merely because James uttered it. Hence, this episode reveals a bishop could try to settle a doctrinal dispute by making what was hoped to be<strong><em> a persuasive non-binding decision</em></strong>. The apostles were not acting in a superior position above James when he acted as Bishop of Jerusalem. Hence, there is no example of hierarchy in Acts 15.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>No Superior Bishop Over Other Bishops</strong></span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">A myth later developed that there was one bishop -- the one at Rome -- in Peter's line -- who was superior to all other Bishops. However, this had no foundation in the early church, as we will review here.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But we Protestants cannot criticize this speck in Roman Catholic eyes when we have similar beams in our own. For just as there was no bishop-over-bishops, there can neither be any authority of 'senior pastor' over 'junior' pastor, or elders over pastors, as we pretend is acceptably different within our Protestant church.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As proof there was no hierarchy in the early church among bishops, Reverand Jeremy Taylor from the 1600s went over the early history and concluded, citing Cyprian (died 258 AD) and Sylvius in support:</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[B]y the law of Christ,<strong><em> one bishop is not superior to the other</em></strong>. ...Cyprian in the council of Carthage [in<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3818.htm"> 257 AD</a>] said: "It remains (saith he) that we all speak what every one of us doth think, judging no man, and refusing to communicate with no man that shall happen to be of a differing judgment:"..."for <strong><em>none of us makes himself a bishop of bishops</em></strong>, or by tyrannical terror compels his colleagues to a necessity of complying : for every bishop hath a liberty and power of his own arbitrement, <em><strong>neither can he be judged by any one, nor himself judge any other</strong></em>; but we all must<em><strong> expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ</strong></em>, who by himself and<em><strong> alone hath power of setting us over the government of his church, and of judging us for what we do</strong></em>."...</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I [Rev. Taylor] only add the saying of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_II">AEneas Sylvius</a> [died 1464 AD], who was himself a pope; "Ante concilium Nicenum, quisque sibi vivebat, et parvus respectus habebatur ad ecclesiam Romanam;" " "Before the Nicene council, <em><strong>every man lived to himself</strong></em>" (that is, by his proper measures, the limits of his own church), "and <strong><em>little regard was had to the church of Rome</em></strong>." (Jeremy Taylor, <em>The Whole Works of The Right Reverand Jeremy Taylor</em> (Ogle Duncan 1822) Vol. 14 at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=fpIbJ7aCcXkC&dq=marsilius%20of%20padua&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q=marsilius%20of%20padua&f=false">71</a>-72.)</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For further research on Cyprian's quote, it is at Cypr. Op. "Council Carth.," p. 229. See this<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ATIJAAAAQAAJ&dq=episcopum%20episcoporum%20constituit&pg=PA300#v=onepage&q=episcopum%20episcoporum%20constituit&f=false"> link</a>.</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For further research on Aenaes Sylvius's quote, it is Aen. Sylvius Op. Basil 1571, Ad Mart. Meyer Epistle cclxxxviii [288] p. 802. See this<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_ZwmAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA386&ots=BbybWtsJMN&dq=parvus%20respectus%20habebatur%20ad%20ecclesiam%20Romanam&pg=PA386#v=onepage&q=parvus%20respectus%20habebatur%20ad%20ecclesiam%20Romanam&f=false"> link</a>.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Also Cyprian wrote in the early church of the 250s of its bishops serving as all equals under Christ as the sole head:</span></p>
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<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"There is one church, <strong>divided by Christ into many members </strong>throughout the world; likewise one bishoprick, poured far abroad by the agreeable<strong><em> multitude of many bishops</em></strong>....[And] although bishopricks be divided and sundered by distance of place, yet were they ever knit together as with a garland, and ever ruled by one advice. Indeed the people was ever mingled together; but the <em><strong>bishops were also joined in charity, that every of them was content to be taught and to be led by other</strong></em>. " (<em>The Works of John Jewel id.</em>, Vol. 3 at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ATIJAAAAQAAJ&dq=episcopum%20episcoporum%20constituit&pg=PA301#v=onepage&q=episcopum%20episcoporum%20constituit&f=false">301</a>, citing Cypr. Op. Antonian Epistle lv, p. 112.) [Also quoted by <em>Catholic Encylopedia</em> at this <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3818.htm">link</a>.]</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Further testimony of there being no superior bishop among bishops initially, at the Council of Constantinople of 380 AD, it was even "decreed that the bishop there should have even and equal authority to the bishop of Rome." (<em>The Works of John Jewel</em> (Cambridge University, 1848) Vol. 3 at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ATIJAAAAQAAJ&dq=episcopum%20episcoporum%20constituit&pg=PA300#v=onepage&q=episcopum%20episcoporum%20constituit&f=false">300</a>.) Jewel found much evidence for camaraderie among bishops in that early period where none sought to claim any superiority. (<em>Works of John Jewel, Bishop of Salibury</em> (University Press, 1845) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_ZwmAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA386&ots=BbybWtsJMN&dq=parvus%20respectus%20habebatur%20ad%20ecclesiam%20Romanam&pg=PA386#v=onepage&q=parvus%20respectus%20habebatur%20ad%20ecclesiam%20Romanam&f=false">386</a>.)</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But can we have one pastor over another? or elders over pastors? Again, to repeat, there was no office of 'pastor' in the early church. Nor were elders an office; they were the older members of a church. (See "What About Elders?" below.) The only mention of pastors and elders in a church setting was by Paul but these references were apparently descriptive of a role, and not an office because such offices were unknown for over 1000 years of early Christianity. So once we created such an office of <em>pastor</em> in our modern era, we have to accept the fact that (a) his superiority over us is baseless; and (b) having a senior pastor over a junior pastor in authority, or elders over a pastor, is contrary to Christ's words as well as the historic features of the office of bishop -- the only office in the early church. But again, the office of pastor was non-existent in the early church. We need to return to the office of bishop which was a very limited role without sermonizing and control. </span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Where Repetitive Preaching By A Single Voice Leads</span></strong></span></h2>
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<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, later, when individual sermonizing became a standardized practice after the 400s, the talks employed "rhetoric" which "speedily passed into mere unreal and factitious artifice;" the talks in church became no more than "intellectual exercise." (Cheetham, <em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">History of Chiristian Antiquities</span></em> (1880) Vol. 2 at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=omMaAAAAYAAJ&dq=liberius%20ordered%20people%20to%20celebrate&pg=PA1689#v=onepage&q&f=false">1689</a>.)</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Church then becomes about admiring the clever rhetoric and even the skill in sophistry of one pastor over another. Then church can descend into absorbing itself in silly issues like predestination, eternal security, and other things that <strong><em>do not promote godliness</em></strong> at all! These discussions clearly <strong><em>promote </em></strong>relaxation and lack of concern about sin. When we take our eyes off Jesus, and focus on textual issues on these topics in Paul's writings, we fall away from Christ. These modern intellectual interpretations of Paul are at total odds with our Lord's words that try to stir our concern about sin by threatening our salvation for a "praxis" (practice) that is sinful. See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+9%3A42-47&version=NASB">Mark 9:42-47</a> (heaven maimed or hell whole); <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt+16%3A27&version=NASB">Matt. 16:27</a> (Son of Man "shall give every man according to the <em>praxis </em>/practice of each.")</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Good preaching is instead about exhortation to obedience and love of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ in whom He dwelled.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But instead, modern preaching often turns into divisive intellectual discussions about nonessentials in writings that are not truly apostolic.</span></p>
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||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And this leads to campaigns to exclude heretics which Paul mandated (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=titus+3%3A10-11&version=NASB">Titus 3:10, 11</a>). But Jesus said <em>no. </em><em>Instead,</em> leave the tares in the congregation. (See our<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/86-paulinisttares.html"> link</a> for further discussion.)</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The paid single-pastor system fed debates over non-essential doctrine destructive of concern for our salvation. Telling people to just believe -- a cost-free salvation -- suits a single-paid pastor system because none will walk away as the rich man to Jesus who had a much higher cost to follow Him. Thus, the single paid-pastor system has led to nothing but divisiveness and has resulted in millions of deluded but reassured so-called 'Christians.' The time is now to proclaim only Christ and His Word, which will have the effect of restoring the <em>true</em> Gospel of "heaven maimed" or not at all! See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+9%3A42-47&version=NASB">Mark 9:42-47</a>. </span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Membership Records?</strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">When Jesus preached to crowds, I don't think He ever asked whether someone was qualified to listen. There was no checking of membership status in any sense. This continued a long time after Jesus' resurrection: "Not until the<strong><em> second century</em></strong> did the Roman church develop<em><strong> an organization capable of expelling</strong></em> those viewed as 'heretics.'" (Richard I. Pervo, <em>The Making of Paul: Constructions of the Apostle in Early Christianity</em> (2010) at<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=RbGDwsknbdsC&lpg=PA351&dq=knox%20marcion&pg=PA351"> 351</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Regardless, if the church is supposed to be about evangelism first, and fellowship second, how can we create <em>formal</em> tiers of people who can and cannot come to church. (There is such a thing as 'shunning,' but that does not require any membership formality, as explained below.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There is a second reason that no formal membership is necessary for church. Participation cannot lead to expulsion. Jesus taught us against the Roman Catholic principle of excommunication of heretics. Jesus taught this in the Parable of the Wheat & The Tares. He told us to leave tares (heretics) in the congregation. See this<a href="/Recommended-Reading/paulinisttares.html"> link</a> for further discussion. Carlstadt, the co-founder in 1517 of the Reformation with Luther, wrote in 1520 in <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Canonicis Scriptoris</span> that "the threat of excommunication had no biblical foundation." (Saebo: <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=OMlT-FViF40C&lpg=PA578&dq=Canonicis%20Scripturis%20karlstadt&pg=PA578#v=onepage&q=Canonicis%20Scripturis%20karlstadt&f=false">578</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So some might speak out whose ideas are wrong. Jesus says, 'let them fellowship.' It happened to our group in Costa Rica. We listened. We showed love, as Jesus commands. It worked itself out. (Well, some wanted to excercise <a href="/Recommended-Reading/paulinisttares.html">Pauline exclusion</a>, and this Pauline-command disrupted the peace of our little group. Our group was not attune to the problem of Paul at that time.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The concept of shunning in Matthew 18 of wrongdoers is different. Those who do moral wrongs are to be confronted one-on-one personally first, and then by two or more witnesses. If no reconciliation is possible, then Jesus teaches to <strong><em>shun</em></strong> them. Jesus did not say exclude such a sinful person from church -- a place where perhaps God's word would pierce his/her heart and cause repentance. The shunning, in fact, likely had the impact of making someone want to come to church for social acceptance, and would upon entry lead quickly to reconciliation with the person he or she offended. Excluding them from church is thus unnecessary and counter-productive; shunning can be done effectively without and within church meetings. It is not intended to exclude one entirely from church meetings.</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Issue About Prayer During Meetings</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">One of the struggles in having church like this is the issue of prayer. Jesus taught:</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>5</sup>"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. <sup>6</sup>But when you pray, <strong><em>go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen</em></strong>. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%206:5-6;&version=NIV;">Matt: 6:5-6</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus identified it as a wrongful practice to stand publicly in the synagogue or in the street and pray (even apparently quietly to oneself). This praying-on-corners is still done in Israel today. The defect was obviously that the penitent's prayer was to be seen by men to be penitent. You were praying on a street corner or "standing" at an assembly evidently to be recognized for such wholesome behavior. Hence, it is important to understand such practice to see the fault Jesus was condemning.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus said the cure to this fault is to pray at home in private without the public present.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Does this principle extend to worship time in a public church assembly? Yes but only as to a single individual's efforts to pray. Only then is the risk of self-promotion present.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For example, notice the Psalms are songs which also can be read together as prayers. If done in a corporate way, a public prayer was certainly legitimate in the Bible. Thus, <strong><em>a joint prayer</em></strong> is clearly appropriate. The Lord's Prayer even appears to imply a corporate usage was intended, "<strong><em>Our</em></strong> Father," forgive "us <strong><em>our</em></strong>" sins, etc.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What about praying at home or in small groups? Obviously, Jesus was saying do not stand as an individual and pray to be seen in an exhibition to the public. Individuals who pray to be seen or heard in front of an audience are taking the risk of self-promotion. </span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #000000;">Arguably, Jesus did not intend to prohibit praying at home in private with close friends and family -- a home group. Jesus prayed in ear-shot of the 12 apostles in the Garden of Gethsemene, and while reclining to eat at the Last Suppear. Each time Jesus did not think this was wrong. Hence, "praying on your couch" -- which was also the place one would eat 'reclining' -- may be Jesus' way of saying you can pray where not many people can stand and listen, but are relaxed in an informal setting reclining on a couch. Hence, in a home group meeting on a couch, the others present may not represent an audience in the sense that risks your intention is public approval of you by the fact you are devotely praying.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #000000;">In other settings like a church meal in front of a large crowd, I would suggest taking Jesus very literally. When your church in a public gathering wishes to pray a blessing thanking God for food, use a common blessing that all can repeat. Do not pray a solitary prayer in front of others at Church. </span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #000000;">What about a prayer group at church with about 30 or more present? Isn't this a public audience, and now we are into the risk that prayer is self-promotion if done by individuals? It is greater than the 12 which Jesus prayed solitary prayers in front of. Hence, there is potentially risk of self-promotion in a way that may offend God.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">One remedy if </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">one thinks the sin Jesus identifies is more the unequal attention and exhibition in front of a substantial audience, then make sure there is a prayer rotation. Thus no one is more holy than the other for prayer. Encourage full participation of each person present so that no one person dominates. If someone is praying more frequently than others to appear more important and sanctified, and whose words show a controlling behavior, then there is a problem. Others should then separately voice concern about exhibitionist prayer in private with that individual.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I suggest also a process of taking prayer requests, whether in a home group or church prayer meeting. This way the prayers should be about the request, curbing the temptation to use a self-congratulatory prayer which a self-promoter might improperly use. </span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #000000;">Otherwise, in any group meeting of 14 or more persons, I would follow Jesus' words literally to not pray individually in public. If you still feel your group must have this, then there is no easy answer to this dilemma except the Fear of God. When people are present talking to God, one would hope that people are mindful of God's displeasure of using prayer as showmanship. Pray the Holy Spirit teaches you what Jesus intended by his prohibition on public praying. </span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What About "Elders"?</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The NT talks about elders. Elders are just that -- older men and women.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">We are never told that they are an office in the church or hold any formal power at all. As one modern evangelical author Benjamin L. Merkle (Baptist seminary professor) explains in <em>Why Elders?: A Biblical and Practical Guide for Church Members </em>(Kregel Academic, 2009):</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The New Testament <strong><em>does not tell us precisely how much authority </em></strong>the elders of the local congregation should have. <em>Id.</em>, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=2TgtWqCTMuUC&lpg=PA35&dq=pastors%20unbiblical&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q=pastors%20unbiblical&f=false">35.</a></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">We just imagine it is the same authority being excercised in the church we attend today. But this is not <em>evidence</em> of what the reference meant in the early church.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Carlstadt, the co-founder of the Reformation with Luther, had the opinion that the only two offices that existed in the early church were that of bishop and deacon, basing this on Titus 1:5, 10. See Ronald J. Sider, <em>Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt: the development of his thought, 1517-1525</em> (Brill, 1974) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=tI2-w1GKVucC&lpg=PA88&dq=De%20Canonicis%20Scripturis%20Credner&pg=PA138#v=onepage&q=paul&f=false">138</a>. Implicitly, there was no office of elder.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, an elder is indeed simply an older member of a church, and whose years in life give him or her a presumed greater wisdom. Teach respect for elders <em>generally</em>, as the Bible commands. This applies inside and outside of church. Because all older members are elders, you can have an elder board, but then it is made up of everyone over a certain age, without any exception. There are no formal hierarchies in a true church of Christ between men and women of the same age.</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">How Jesus' Words Would Help Missions and Charities</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Before going to Costa Rica, I was always part of church leadership because I was their legal counsel. I saw the sad tragic inner workings. One pastor was told by the elder board that<strong><em> if the pastor did not increase offerings</em></strong>, he would be <strong><em>r</em></strong><em><strong>eplaced</strong></em>. Imagine that!</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I saw how <strong><em>building costs</em></strong>, nursery staffing, activities to entertain, etc., ate up budget after budget. I saw how charitable giving by the church-entity was a tiny percentage of the church-tithe back to the community. We were forced instead to fund the para-church organization with most of our "tithe." I saw evangelical opportunity after evangelical opportunity passed by in favor of these other expenses. I saw widowed women and divorcees in shame and distress ask a deacon board for money whose requests were tabled until their sons or daughters (who had no Christian belief) could explain why they were not helping their mom.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">A church today runs on money. And the expenses are not evangelistic or charitable in the majority. It is a sad state of affairs.</span></p>
|
||||
<p class="p3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">If the church returned to Jesus's structure for the church, the support for missions and charities both personally and financially would grow. This is because we would focus on the person in the symbolic chair --- JESUS -- and Jesus's words. The emphasis radically changes for Jesus taught us:</span></p>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">to provide food, water and clothes to the brethren (in need)(Parable of the Sheep and the Goats);</span></li>
|
||||
<li><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">help our neighbor in medical need from a mortal condition (Parable of the Good Samaritan);</span></li>
|
||||
<li><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">nothing about attending a church or weekly worship service or creating an expensive worship center but instead Jesus foresaw a post-temple time of worshipping in "truth and spirit" without such a building expense<strong><em> burdening us;</em></strong> and</span></li>
|
||||
<li><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">to go into all the "world" and "not hide our light under a bushel" and preach and teach "all that I (Jesus) have commanded you."</span></li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">An Important Step of Healing: Get Rid of Church Buildings</span></strong></span></h3>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">An important step of reform would be to resolve to get rid of church buildings, or at least make home church groups the predominant method of fellowship and worship. That is, let's reduce emphasis on a worship center which is not a normal home. First, church buildings financially drain the church of money to do good works among [A] non-Christians (to help lead them to Christ as Jesus instructed in Matt. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5:16&version=NIV">5:16</a>) and [B] Christians. Second, modern church buildings perpetuate the system of passive audience-oriented Christianity without true life under Christ.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Most important, the modern church building is totally unbiblical. Even Philp Schaff admits this. Here is an amazing quote from Philip Schaff, the premier modern historian of the church, and himself the product of modern church buildings and systems. Yet he condemns the notion and the costliness of official church structures as unbiblical and without precedent in the early church!</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">That the Christians in the <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">apostolic age erected special houses </span>of worship is out of the question....As the Saviour of the world was born in a stable, and ascended to heaven from a mountain, so his apostles and their successors down to the fourth century,<strong><em> preached in the streets, the markets, on mountains, in ships, sepulchres, caves, and deserts, and in the humblest private dwellings</em></strong>. But how many thousands of costly churches and chapels have since been built in all parts of the world to the honor of the crucified Redeemer. (Philip Schaff, <em>History of the Christian Church</em> (Scribner: 1859) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=NV8sAAAAYAAJ&dq=apostolic%20age%20erected%20special%20houses&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q=apostolic%20age%20erected%20special%20houses&f=false">127</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The first mention of 'to go to church' appears in 190 AD -- in a letter by Clement of Alexandria. (Viola & Barna, <em>Pagan Christianity</em> (Tyndale: 2008 ) at 12.) But even then it "refers to a private home that the second-century churches used for their meetings." <em>Id.</em></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">New Testament scholar Graydon F. Synder explains why we can affirm there were no church buildings until under Emperor Constantine in the 300s:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"There is no literary evidence nor archaelogical indication that any such home was converted into an extant church building. Nor is there any extent church that certainly was built prior to Constantine." (Snyder, <em>Ante-Pacem: Archaelogical Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine </em>(2003) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=swtI9Cpyl3kC&lpg=PP1&dq=Ante-Pacem%3A%20Archaeological%20Evidence%20of%20Church%20Life%20Before%20Constantine&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q=homes&f=false">128</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, Synder concludes in <em>Ante-Pacem: Archaelogical Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine </em>(Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1985) at 67</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The first churches consistently met in homes. Until the year 300 <strong><em>we know of no buildings first built as a church</em></strong>.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Besides homes, the early church also met in "open places, markets and hired halls." (<em>Id., </em>2003 edition, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=swtI9Cpyl3kC&lpg=PP1&dq=Ante-Pacem%3A%20Archaeological%20Evidence%20of%20Church%20Life%20Before%20Constantine&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q=homes&f=false">128</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, if we had Jesus' concept of church, I bet every week-end we would worship outdoors or in a home as a step toward different afternoon opportunities than we do now. Our money we collect would be used to <strong><em>gain friends for the kingdom</em></strong>. See Luke <a href="http://bible.cc/luke/16-9.htm">16:9</a> ("I tell you, use <strong><em>worldly wealth to gain friends</em></strong> for yourselves...."); Matt.<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5:16&version=NIV"> 5:16</a> ("In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may<strong><em> see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven</em></strong>.") We would help widows, orphans and the poor, as was a main purpose of offerings commanded to Jews in their tithe. (See our PDF article on the tithe at this <a href="/images/stories/Lessons/es app on tithing.pdf">link</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As a result, we would more often end up at a food dispensing service run by Christians for the poor. Or do some charity work where we could meet people who don't know Christ, but due to our charity, will give thanks to God and want to know about Jesus whose example we claim to follow. They will then be open to hear about God and the Lord Jesus's payment for their sins if they turn in repentance and fully trust Him as Lord of their lives.</span></p>
|
||||
<h3><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Jesus' Example</strong></span></h3>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Maybe that mobile triage unit is what Jesus actually had in mind when He spoke of His church. Consider Jesus' own example. Did He start any building projects? Wasn't the only money handled by the 12 a money bag for the poor? Was this ever spent on administration costs of staff and a music team? Did Jesus stay in one place and show up week after week at the same synagogue to speak, or instead did Jesus largely give itinerant missionary messages to strangers in open fields? Jesus said He had no place to even lay His head.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This supports a minimal role for a church structure as the central hub of our attention. It does not erase it entirely. Jesus did several times attend synagogue services, and once He participated in the reading from Isaiah at one.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><strong><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Our Proper Self-Designation to Reflect Jesus As Sole Master</span></strong></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I think Luther hit the nail on the head with this one although later he succumbed to pressure to allow exactly the contrary of what he initially protested:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I pray you leave my name alone and <em><strong>not to call yourselves Lutherans</strong></em>, but <em><strong>Christians</strong></em>. Who is Luther? My doctrine is not mine: I have not been crucified for any one...How does it then benefit me, a miserable bag of dust and ashes, to give my name to the children of Christ? Cease, my dear friends, to cling to these party names and distinctions; away with all of them; and <strong><em>let us call ourselves only Christians</em></strong>, after <em><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Him from whom our doctrine comes</span></strong></em>. It is quite proper for Papists should bear the name of their party, because they are not content with<em><strong> the name and doctrine of Jesus Christ</strong></em>....Well, let them own the Pope, as he is their master. For me, <strong><em>I neither am, nor wish to be the master of any one</em></strong>. I and mine will contend for the sole and whole doctrine of <strong><em>Christ, who is our sole master.</em></strong> (P. Schaff, <em>The History of the Christian Church </em>(1910)<a href="http://www.ccel.org/a/schaff/history/7_ch05.htm"> Section 78</a>, reprinted Oak Harbor, Wa., Logos Research, 1997); <em>see also </em>Michelet, <em>Life of Luther</em>, at 262; Stork, <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>The Life of Luther</em><em> </em>at 289.</span>).</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Conclusion</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This topic disturbs modern Pastors who are <strong>enriched by Pauline principles of church leaders, pastorates for pay, etc</strong>. But it is time that followers of Jesus speak out for a different way -- the WAY Jesus taught.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This home-church movement can only be reliably dominated by laypersons who are committed to not making any financial gain by their involvement in 'church.' You cannot expect your current pastor or minister will lead the change. It runs counter to what holds them captive -- career preaching of the gospel for pay. By strong financial compulsion, they will explain away Jesus' words. Paul will be cited that ministers are entitled to pay, and that the title of 'pastor' is an office in the church which Jesus 'shares' with them. Thus, you will get nowhere trying to convince them that they are on the wrong track. So show them the right track, and your good fruit of helping widows and orphans, the spiritually hurting, etc., and spreading the Gospel of Jesus more effectively than even they imagined. Then they might repent. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Anthony Buzzard, a theologian and minister, wrote wisely on a similar topic that there are certain issues which become orthodox not because they are right, <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">but because a pastor or minister can only continue to enrich themselves from "God's service" by perpetuating such doctrines</span></strong></span>. Buzzard explains:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Few Christians can conceive the possibility that they may have embraced long-standing error. We have been well schooled by our teachers to wrap protective armor<img src="http://focusonthekingdom.org/old_web/a-buzzard.JPG" alt="" width="85" height="142" style="float: right;" /> around our imagined truth, even though it may be indefensible error. We're prone to give unquestioning assent to hallowed church tradition. We're often overwrought by authority and title.<em><strong> Seldom do we pause to consider the religious leadership is in the hands of those who will conform to a prevailing pattern or acceptable thinking and were rewarded for their orthodoxy.</strong></em> But can our present denominational systems, among which there exists serious conflicts and disagreements, faithfully represent God and truth? (Buzzard, <em>The Doctrine of the Trinity</em> (1998) at 306.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, we must turn to Jesus to be our pastor who leads us out of the darkness that currently prevails. And we will find it is easy to follow Jesus when no one is paid to re-inforce doctrines Jesus did not teach. When pastorates-for-pay cease, the scales of incorrect doctrine will finally fall away. Christ's Kingship will have a new renaissance - one long overdue. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Lastly, the lay-person faithful whose only interest is to love Christ and serve our Father in Heaven will be the engine God uses to make this next large-scale transformation in the church. In the coming <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong>era of persecution</strong></span>, this switch may even help<em><strong> prepare the church</strong></em> to continue and spread because now the <em><strong>church's physical effectiveness</strong></em> cannot be destroyed when a mere assistant pastor / teaching assistant / staff assistant disappears or when thugs destroy a church building or murder a Christian of influence.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I will leave as the final words those of a servant Philip Harwood who in 1838 brought the same plea as is outlined above. Among his closing comments to a sermon that was reprinted at London were these:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">We do not want a new gospel. We want the old gospel to be preached and practised with a new energy and earnestness. We want a new perception and setting forth of its everlasting truths, a new out-pouring upon us all of its spirit of liberty and love, We want not to have Rabbis, and masters, and fathers upon earth—<em><strong>we want a true, living devotedness to our Master and our Father in heaven.</strong></em> We want not more sacraments, more priests, more bishops, more cathedral churches—<em><strong>we want more faith, more hope, more love</strong></em>. We want not government patronage, but popular intelligence and virtue. We want not the dominance of a sect, though it were our own— but the <em><strong>sway of the Christianity common</strong></em>, more or less, to all sects, the Christianity that is known by its fruits. (Philip Harwood, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Religious Equality, A Sermon preached at Bridport, December 23, 1838</span> (London: Mardon 1838) at <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/691-sermon-on-equality-by-harwood-1838.html">22-23</a>.)</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Blessings of Christ.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">END</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong>NOTES AND COMMENTS</strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;">Pastors Who Renounce the Title After Reading This Article</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">#1 "Pastor Pius" of Kenya - Now Brother Pius, Servant of Jesus</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Our Dearest brother Douglas</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Greetings in the name of our Savior Jesus. I am happy of the sermon of Jesus' Words on Church Structure that you have sent to me.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What a wonderful lesson you have tought me!!!!, from now on words, <em><strong>I resign to from being called a pastor</strong> </em>and I am just a brother and a SERVANT OF JESUS. From now, I confirm to you and Yah that henceforth I want people to call me brother Pius. I have seen and really realized that neither Yah nor Jesus support a pastoral post. This pastoral post is human as it is only Paul who supports it.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I declare today and I will announce it to our members next week so that they will be calling me a Servant of Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Brother Doug, Thanks a lot for your wonderful lesson to myself.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Shalom and blessings from Yah and His son Yahshua our Messiah.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">All our Love,</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" data-mce-mark="1">Brother: Pius </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" data-mce-mark="1">Here is a <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/620-brother-pius-giving-up-his-title-as-pastor.html">link</a> to the text of Brother Pius's actual speech to his congregation of 30, resigning as Pastor to take the role of brother -- willing to seat himself if the Holy Spirit moves another to teach / preach.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">#2 - Be Pastor #2 to renounce your title as pastor. Please bravely make the same resignation as Pastor that Pius did. Then share your speech. </span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" data-mce-mark="1"> <br /> </span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">What Should We Do Now If We Are Alone? Commentary by Doug</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What should we do now when few share these views? What if we have no friends who agree to worship and organize the way Jesus taught? What if we are alone for the present? </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">First, we are not truly alone, for worship is with the Father in Heaven who hears our prayers, whether in a crowd or alone. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Yet, on Sabbath, we are to seek a "holy convocation." (See our "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/33-sabbathcommand.html">Sabbath Command</a>" article.) However, there is no rule what that means. Obviously, we can have worship anywhere with anyone, even if it is only by yourself. Jesus even told you to go in your room to pray. So you can have a convocation alone with God if that is the only present option.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What if we do not know how to worship alone? Or in small numbers? Consider the alternative -- whether you should truly regularly attend modern Pauline "Christian" churches. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">While I do not see any sin in visiting Pauline Christian churches to occassionally worship -- making mental exceptions as I watch / observe the goings-on that are terrible traditions (see my article "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/86-paulinisttares.html">How to Treat Pauline Tares</a>,"), it can grade on your spirit. It can prove harmful over the long-term. You have to select a Pauline church that emphasizes righteousness, and teaches you God's true principles of behavior. They will say it is for rewards. You know that obedience has more importance than that. So you can usually listen, with a mental check against their de-emphasis.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, Kierkegaard has a more negative view which we should consider. Kierkegaard was one of the most recent Christians to recognize the Problem of Paul. Kierkegaard explained how Pauline Christianity is now victorious and ended true Christianity (see <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/83-kierkegaard.html">our link</a>). In this crisis, Kierkegaard wrote in 1854 that it not only is better not to participate in such a church but also that it is sinful to do so: </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"This has to be said; so be it now said,</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whoever thou art, whatever in other respects thy life may <span style="font-size: 18pt;">b</span></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">e, my friend, by ceasing to take part (if ordinarily thou doest) in the public worship of God, as it now is (with the claim that it is the Christianity of the New Testament),<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> thou hast constantly one guilt the less, and that a great one: thou dost not take part in treating God as a fool</span> by calling that the Christianity of the New Testament which is not the Christianity of the New Testament."</span></span></strong></p>
|
||||
<div style="margin-left: 30px;" align="right"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">S. Kierkegaard, 1854</span></strong></div>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I don't contend it is a sin to attend a Pauline church because of what Jesus taught in the Parable of the Tares. We should fellowship with fellow believers in Jesus. We cannot determine who is sincere or how deeply they truly love Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">At best, each of us in this present crisis can pray about whether to enter the modern "Church" enclaves at all or only occassionally or very selectively based upon proximity of doctrine. The important thing in all of this is that the choice is truly how to MAKE TIME to worship the Father and His appointed King, His Son - Yahshua. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: xx-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Worship Tools</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I provide suggestions / video / audio links to help on the "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/33-sabbathcommand.html" style="line-height: 1.3em;">Sabbath Command</a>" page so you can worship at home, either alone or with others. I suggest you pick 1 p.m. every Sabbath to have your convocation. I also have a page of Music suggestions (with worship video with lyrics) at this <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html" style="line-height: 1.3em;">link</a>. Lastly, I collected various prayers and edifying material, including many You Tubes, that can lift your spirits at this<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/308-prayers-and-edification.html" style="line-height: 1.3em;"> link</a>.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Blessings. Doug</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Suggestion for Service Order</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Frank Viola in my view goes too far in <em>Pagan Christianity</em> to think the right choice is to have absolutely no order of worship. Instead, what you need are two things (a) equal treatment and position of all; and (b) no superiority of any single individual except the King---Jesus. But you can have such a spirit within the framework of a service order. Within it, you can incorporate all the spontaneous contributions from members that arise. So rather than invite chaos, here is what we did in Costa Rica for four years before we left, and it worked great:</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">1. Form a circle so no one person is the center of attention. Invite Jesus to participate, and ask Him to take His throne in the room. If it helps your group focus on Jesus as leader and pastor, place an empty chair near the center of the circle or within the circle.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">2. Open in Prayer to God (Yahweh / the Father) in Yahshua's name. (Yahshua is Jesus's true name. See<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/353-yashua-and-the-name-of-jesus.html"> link</a>. It is preferable because in Judaic thought the sound of a name is the name, not a translated pronunciation.) Sing a hymn or two.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">3. The host family (rotate weekly if possible) asks for individuals to express thanks to God for small and big things of each individual. This is Praise time.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">4. The host family asks for expressions of sorrow for having done an individual wrong, especially another participant/spouse/friend. Such a step helps group unity if sins expressed by one participant toward another are made in public, e.g., "I am sorry I snapped at Bob." But some confessions should be done in private, especially if children are around.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">5. The host family invites prayer requests -- for others to hold up in prayer.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">6. Inviduals pray based upon the prayer requests.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">7. Read a passage of Scripture -- about 12 verses. Then the reader starts over one verse at a time. The reader asks the group what do you think this verse means? The reader does not contribute. When all opinions are canvassed, the reader goes to the next verse. And this repeats itself until all 12 verses are discussed. No one has to have doctorate to comment! <strong><em>You would be amazed about the richness of spiritually-motivated ideas among the faithful.</em></strong> It is a far richer experience than listening week-after-week to a 'pastor' teach. We did accept prepared studies to be discussed but kept to 5 minutes or so, yet everyone was free to comment and critique the thoughts as they were expressed. A true discussion format where Jesus / the Spirit was trusted to be the leader and teacher. (You can repeat this several times with different members reading off a verse that the Lord showed them the past week or during the worship time.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">8. Praise God for His Word.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">9. Sing a hymn or read a Psalm. Try to pick songs about God and His greatness. (Many songs are about our pathetic weaknesses and needs. But this is WORSHIP. It is not supposed to focus on us. This is my wife's pet-peeve with the choice of music at most churches. It is not worship on the greatness of God and praise, but commenting on our experience, our needs, etc.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">10. Offer bread (unleavened) and wine to all. Grape juice if you insist.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">11. Do the communion with the words of invocation from Scripture (<em>e.g</em>., Luke). The host or some volunteer should read the Scripture to all.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">12. Sing a hymn or two that are WORSHIP oriented.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">13. Close in Prayer.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">14. Have a lunch or dinner together.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">15. The most important rule: don't make the rules of order more important than the Spirit of God who you always allow to change what you do.</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Study Notes / Further Research on Teacher/Leader Issue</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<h3><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Marsilius of Padua 1275-1342 AD</span></strong></span></h3>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Marsilius was the first thinker in Roman Catholic Christendom to deny there is any right to hierarchical authority within the church. Marsilius also contended there was no right within the church to punish heresy. And he said that the church has no right to establish an orthodox viewpoint on any doctrine so that it is then becomes beyond dispute. None of those powers were delegated by Jesus to the church. (See Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, editors, <em>History of Political Philosophy</em> (2d ed.)(Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing, 1972) at 251-53.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Strauss/Cropsey's famous text explains:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">but he<em><strong> denies</strong></em> that the ecclesiastical<em><strong> hierarchy is divinely established</strong></em>. According to him all Christian priests are <em><strong>essentially equal</strong></em> in all respects as far as divine right is concerned. He also <em><strong>denies that any priest, even if he be bishop or pope</strong></em>, has by divine right any of the following powers: the <em><strong>power to command or to coerce</strong></em>; the<em><strong> power to decide</strong></em> whether and how coercion is to be <em><strong>exercised against apostates and heretics, be they subjects or princes</strong></em>; and the <strong><em>power to determine in a legally binding way what is orthodox and what is heretical</em></strong>. <em>Id.</em>, at 251.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Marsilius argues that Christ came into the world not to dominate men, nor to wield temporal rule; and he <em><strong>excluded himself, his apostles and disciples and their successors, bishops and priests, from all coercive authority and worldly rule</strong></em>," says Kilcullen, R.J. Kilcullen in "<a href="http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/y6707.html">Tape 8: Marsilius of Padua</a>," Macquarie University POL167: Introduction to Political Theory (1996) citing Marsilius of Padua, <em>In Defense of the Peace</em> (trans. Alan Gewirth)(N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1956) at 114.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Specifically, Marsilius said "That Christ meant to exclude his apostles from worldly rule is proved by: <strong><em>'The kings of the gentiles lord it over them... But you not so</em></strong>." <em>Id.</em>, citing Marsilius, at 113-40.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For more background, see also "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/334-marsilius-of-padua-on-church-hierarchy-knol.html">Marsilius of Padua</a>" <em>Knol Encyclopedia</em>.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, Marsilius's work <em>In Defense of the Peace</em> was the first book that used Christ's principles to say all sovereignty rests with the people who have the right to replace temporal rulers. Marsilius said all political power vests with the people. Five hundred years later, the American Revolution took these principles seriously for the first time. See Fritz Berolzheimer, <em>The world's legal philosophies</em> (Boston: 1912) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_U4uAAAAIAAJ&dq=marsilius%20of%20padua&pg=PA109#v=onepage&q=marsilius%20of%20padua&f=false">109</a>. )</span></p>
|
||||
<h3><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Glasite Movement of 1725-29 Was First To Attempt No Earthly-Pastor System</span></strong></span></h3>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">A Presbyterian pastor in Edinburgh, John Glas, in 1730 started up a church that did not have a single pastor, and tried to have all the church members treated as equal brethren. He started well for a long time. Glas's original writings from 1725-1729 echo many of the same points we found above from Jesus's words. Glas's good beginning -- known as the Glasite movement -- is summarized on our website at this <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/137-glasites.html">link</a>.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, because Glas eventually and gradually incorporated Pauline views on pastors, elders, and Paul's doctrine to exclude "heretics" on two warnings, the system degraded into an unbearable tyranny of many equal pastors, rather than the few, who forced all members to submit to these pastors. Total unanimity of opinion on all sorts of matters were required on pain of excommunication (which Paul alone teaches) (Jesus taught tolerating heretics in the Parable of the Tares, and only taught the shunning of moral wrongdoers in Matt. 18.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, the ultimate failure of the Glasite movement to create a true Christian fellowship underscores that Christ's true church cannot flourish as Christ intended it until the authority of Paul is rejected. Paul's words sow divisiveness and the need for a domineering human controller or controllers (<em>e.g</em>,. a person / persons to enforce exclusion on those regarded as heretics on doctrine after two warnings, as Paul taught).</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Reformation Prevented Independent Churches, Even Independent Witnessing</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">We have all been told the Reformation changed everything for Christianity. Supposedly, true Christianity was reborn. Not quite. What happened is that Catholicism's stranglehold was loosed, but a new one was attempted to be put on the followers of Jesus -- Paulianity similar to old Marcionism was reborn. Yet, some true Christianity emerged but it was quickly quashed by the new Paulianity.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Carlstadt co-founded the Reformation with Luther in 1517. He tried to take the church in the direction of relying only on Jesus' words, and held they were superior to Paul's. (See "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/193-carlstadt-research.html">Carlstadt Research</a>.") Carlstadt "<strong><em>granted laymen the right to perform all tasks previously reserved for the ordained</em></strong>." (See Ronald J. Sider, <em>Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt: the development of his thought, 1517-1525</em> (Brill, 1974) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=tI2-w1GKVucC&lpg=PA88&dq=De%20Canonicis%20Scripturis%20Credner&pg=PA137#v=onepage&q=paul&f=false">137</a>.) Carlstadt insisted upon the "<em><strong>layman's right to judge theological disputes and attend general councils, ... to celebrate the eucharist privately</strong></em>...." (<em>Id.</em>, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=tI2-w1GKVucC&lpg=PA88&dq=De%20Canonicis%20Scripturis%20Credner&pg=PA137#v=onepage&q=paul&f=false">137</a>-38.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, Luther by 1522 diverged from Carlstadt, and was angry with his positions on the book of James and handling the eucharist, etc. Luther called Carlstadt the "New Judas," and had him banished from Germany. (See "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/111-luther-killed-jwo.html">Luther Destroys JWO Movement in Reformation</a>.")</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Luther could do so because he had esconced himself in the favor of several key rulers of Germany. Thereby, Lutheranism became the official church in many parts of Germany. Luther then refused to allow any independent church as a violation of Paul's commands to obey our rulers (Romans 13:1). Any home church would necessarily be in violation of the new state Lutheran church. In fact, any <strong><em>private preaching one-on-one was prohibited</em></strong>. Luther said:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What I say about <strong><em>public preaching</em></strong>, I say even more even more emphatically about <strong><em>private preaching</em></strong> and <strong><em>secret ceremonies</em></strong>. These are not to be tolerated at all. For the rest, anyone may read what he like and believe what he like....[This rule] puts a stop to the knavery of the fellows who <strong><em>preach in corners</em></strong>, who sneak uncalled and unsent, into <em><strong>people's houses</strong></em>, and emit their poison there, before pastors or rulers find them out. These are the thieves and murders of whom Christ speaks in John 10. (Luther, "Commentary on 82d Psalm," <em>Works of Luther</em> (2007) Vol. IV at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=hGR548TlX2oC&lpg=PA312&ots=bGJ9J0C3Lf&dq=%22public%20preaching%22%20%22secret%20ceremonies%22%20luther&pg=PA312#v=onepage&q&f=false">312</a>; official cite LW 1364; WA 31.1:210,11-12 (citation referenced by MacKenzie: <a href="http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/mackenziechallengeofhistory.pdf">20</a>).</span></p>
|
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">On peril of body and soul, no one should listen to such a man but should report him to his pastor or ruler. (Quoted from same passage by James Martin Estes, <em>Peace, order and the glory of God</em> (Brill: 2005) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=nn-YmLxcbPAC&lpg=PA188&ots=nExWjYzQYf&dq=luther%20%22on%20peril%20of%20body%20and%20soul%22&pg=PA188#v=onepage&q=luther%20%22on%20peril%20of%20body%20and%20soul%22&f=false">188.</a>)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">If true, then what about Jesus's evangelism and His sharing bread in private ceremonies, and telling his apostles to do likewise and visit people in homes? Luther admitted the apostles were commanded to go into people's homes in Mark 16:15, but Luther claimed this was a "<strong><em>special command</em></strong>" only applicable to the apostles! "<strong><em>Since then</em></strong>,<em><strong> no one has had this general command</strong></em>," as Estes summarizes Luther's silly argument. <em>See,</em> James Martin Estes, <em>Peace, order and the glory of God</em> (Brill: 2005) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=nn-YmLxcbPAC&lpg=PA188&ots=nExWjYzQYf&dq=luther%20%22on%20peril%20of%20body%20and%20soul%22&pg=PA188#v=onepage&q=luther%20%22on%20peril%20of%20body%20and%20soul%22&f=false">188.</a>)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Luther took this unbiblical position to the point of killing people! Luther promised and delivered a death sentence upon members of independent congregations like the Anabaptists founded. Their independence, by itself, was a basis for Luther finding them <strong><em>guilty of sedition</em></strong>, and subject to a death penalty. While Luther in this quote below highlighted the Anabaptist opposition to infant baptism -- the Anabaptists instead insisted upon a knowing faith-based confession, Luther justified executing Anabaptists simply because the Anabaptists sought independence from the state church now led by himself. This supposedly proved their seditious nature. Luther wrote:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">That <em>seditious articles</em> of doctrine should be <strong><em>punished by the sword </em></strong>needed no further proof. For the rest, the Anabaptists hold tenets relating to infant baptism, original sin, and inspiration, which have no connection with the Word of God, and are indeed opposed to it. ... Secular authorities are also bound to restrain and punish avowedly false doctrine ... For think what disaster would ensue if children were not baptized? ... Besides this the Anabaptists <strong><em>separate themselves from the churches</em></strong> ... and they<strong><em> set up a ministry and congregation of their own</em></strong>, which is also contrary to the command of God. From all this it becomes clear that the<strong><em> secular authorities are bound</em></strong> ... to inflict <em><strong>corporal punishment on the offenders</strong></em> ... Also when it is a case of only upholding some spiritual tenet, such as infant baptism, original sin, and unnecessary separation, then ... we conclude that ... the stubborn sectaries must be put to death." (Dave Armstrong. "Pamphlet of 1536" in<em> Martin Luther and The Protestant Inquisition</em> (Janssen, X, 222-223; pamphlet of 1536.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For the same reason, Luther likewise prohibited anyone serving the role of pastor who was not authorized by the state church. These men should be arrested as likely to stir up rebellion. MacKenzie in the Lutheran <em>Concordia Journal</em> excerpts these passages and comments where Luther refuted Jesus's view that all believers are equal. Instead, Luther created a superior class known as the 'pastor.' (Other than Paul's writings which mention the office of pastor, no early church-history documents reveal any such office of 'pastor). Luther wrote:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"All Christians are priests," Luther said, "but <strong><em>not all are pastors</em></strong>. For to be a pastor one must be not only a Christian and priest but <em><strong>must have an office committed to him.</strong></em> This call and command make pastors and preachers." Those who preach without such authorization are "sure emissaries of the devil." They should be turned over to the authorities for, in Luther's thinking, their purpose is "to start a rebellion, or worse, among the people."</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Source: MacKenzie in "Luther's Two Kingdoms," from the Lutheran <em>Concordia Journal</em> (2007) No. 71 at <a href="http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/mackenziechallengeofhistory.pdf">22</a> (PDF). MacKenzie cites for these three quotes respectively (1) LW 13:65; WA 31.1:211,17-20; (2) LW13:65; WA 31.1:211,26-27; and (3) 65 LW 13:66; WA 31.1:212,4-5.</span></p>
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<h3><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As Private Preaching Was Banned, Non-Christians Were Compelled To Hear Authorized Public Preaching</span></strong></span></h3>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As Luther's command explicitly prohibited private evangelism, how would a non-Christian hear the word? Luther's solution was simple. Luther justified forcing non-Christians to attend the official state church on pain of banishment:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"It is our custom to affright those who ... fail to attend the preaching; and to<strong><em> threaten them with banishment</em></strong> and the law. ... In the event of their still proving contumacious, to excommunicate them ... as if they were heathen." (Dave Armstrong, <em>Martin Luther and The Protestant Inquisition</em> (Grisar, citing LW VI, 263; EN, IX, 365; letter to Leonard Beyer, 1533)</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Although excommunication in Pope-dom has been shamefully abused ... yet we must not suffer it to fall, but make right use of it, as Christ commanded." (Dave Armstrong, <em>Martin Luther and The Protestant Inquisition</em> citing Durant, 424-425.)</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"The spiritual powers ... also the temporal ones, will have to succumb to the Gospel, either through love or <strong><em>through force</em></strong>, as is clearly proved by all Biblical history." (Martin Luther, Letter to Frederick, Elector of Saxony, 1522 (Janssen, III, 267; letter to Frederick, Elector of Saxony, 1522)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What about the common people whom Luther originally appealed to for support? What if they did not go along with the Lutheran church once imposed as the state church through most of Germany? Luther's view was harsh and so unlike our Lord's view:</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Like the mules who will not move unless you perpetually whip them with rods, so the<em><strong> civil powers must drive the common people, whip, choke, hang, burn, behead and torture them, that they may learn to fear the powers that be</strong></em>." (El. ed. 15, 276, quoted by O'Hare, in '<em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Facts About Luther</span></em> (TAN Books, 1987) at 235.)</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p> </p>
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<h3><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As Private Preaching Even By Missionaries Was Banned, War Would Spread Christianity</span></strong></span></h3>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">Having crippled Christianity from private preaching as Christ practiced and Jesus encouraged of his 12 apostles, Luther intended Christianity should now only spread by the sword and war, not by voluntary witnessing:</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
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<div>
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<div style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"The Word of God can never be advanced without whirlwind, tumult, and danger ... One must either despair of peace and tranquility or else deny the Word. <strong><em>War is of the Lord</em></strong> who did not come to send peace. <strong><em>Take care not to hope</em></strong> that the cause of Christ can be advanced in the world <strong><em>peacefully and sweetly</em></strong>, since you see the battle has been waged with his own blood and that of the martyrs." (Letter of Martin Luther to Georg Spalatin, February 1520.)</span></div>
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<h3><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Luther Taught The State Alone Would Adjudicate Church Doctrine</strong></span></h3>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">To prevent any private preaching further, and any private discussions on what doctrine might mean, Luther gave the state the sole authority to adjudicate church doctrine. Luther directed:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Let the rulers take a hand. Let them hear the case and command that party to keep silence which does not agree with the Scriptures."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">MacKenzie in "Luther's Two Kingdoms," from the Lutheran <em>Concordia Journal</em> provides this quote with citation, and then comments this means that "the temporal authorities<strong><em> will actually adjudicate a doctrinal dispute.</em></strong>" (See link to MacKenzie's article online at this link to PDF at page <a href="http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/mackenziechallengeofhistory.pdf">21</a>; MacKenzie cites LW 13:63; WA 31.1:209,24-26.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, the Reformation removed one collar and gave us another one. Part of our continued antipathy to home churches arises from the ingrained belief from centuries of torture and persecution of <strong><em>those who practiced what Jesus endorsed</em></strong>. It is time to break free, and courageously stand for Christ's Way! Now we must remember that we have Jesus's words to serve as our sole pastor.</span></p>
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<h2><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Pauline Wages To Ministers Is A Seduction</span></span></strong></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus sent the apostles out to preach and teach, but taught them not to take any wages. "Freely you received, freely you give."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This was the view of the original church.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Carl B. Hoch, Jr., professor of New Testament at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary states: "In New Testament days, </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"><em>leaders were normally not paid.</em> </strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">That is, money was given more as a gift than as an income or a salary. ....[M]oney was never to be the driving force of ministry (1 Peter 5:2). Unfortunately, churches today will not call a man until they feel they can support him, and some men will not seriously consider a call if the financial package is 'inadequate.'" (Carl B. Hoch, Jr.,</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;"> All Things New</em><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995) at 240).</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Likewise, Lenski states in his <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>Commentary on Paul's Epistle to Timothy</em> that clearly taking wages by preaching elders was not practiced in the early church, despite Paul's best efforts to create such a practice</span>:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is generally assumed that the elders were paid for their services in the apostolic churches. We are convinced that this assumption is not tenable. The probability is that none of them were paid. The elders of the synagogues were not paid or salaried. Each synagogue had a number of elders, too many to have a payroll that would be large enough to support them. The apostolic congregations imitated the synagogue in this respect. (Lenski,<em> Commentary on Saint Paul's Epistles to Timothy</em> (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1937) at 683).</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul alone in the NT justified paying church leaders for services. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Christians are waking up, and realizing pastorates-for-pay is unbiblical. Paul is the most formidable force to overcome. For as Macarius Magnes pointed out in the 300s (see <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/397-macarius-magnes-on-paul-from-circa-300-ad.html">our link</a>), Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:14 says "those who preach the Gospel should receive their living from the Gospel." For these Christians who wish to teach contrarily, yet stay true to Paul, they take all of Paul's verses that support self-sufficiency in his own ministry, and try to convince pastors today to ween themselves off of the wage-train. Although followers of Paul, these Christians are to be commended, and their site is: <a href="http://www.batteredsheep.com/pastors_salaried.html">http://www.batteredsheep.com/pastors_salaried.html</a><a href="http://www.batteredsheep.com/pastors_salaried.html"></a></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Battered Sheep exhort us to a new type of church -- volunteer servants. It gives us this new view which it says revives the original view. Please observe how much it notes if the structural problems identified above disappear (e.g., inequality, superiors, etc.), this would end pastorates-for-pay by necessity:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">If our churches truly implemented New Testament patterns of ministry, <em><strong>one wonders whether there would be any real need to support one, full-time pastor?</strong></em> If the local church had a functioning priesthood (as <em><strong>opposed to the passive, spectator event that is the mark of most churches</strong></em>) and an equally shared eldership, there simply <em>would not be the urgency or necessity to hire someone on a full-time basis</em>. This is because (1) leadership responsibilities would be shared; (2)<em><strong> one man and his gifts would not become the focal-point of the meeting</strong></em>; (3) corporate teaching would be shared and <strong><em>not left to one sole pastor</em></strong>; and (4) each member would<em><strong> actively participate and contribute to the meeting</strong></em>. (D.M. Erkel, "<a href="http://www.batteredsheep.com/pastors_salaried.html">Should Pastors Be Salaried?</a>" <em>Battered Sheep </em>(2010).)</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Amen. How does Battered Sheep suggest to exit this mistaken path?</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[W]e would highly recommend that pastors secure an additional skill or trade in the event that a congregation's financial assistance runs out (or even if he gets terminated from his church!). Is this not the better of wisdom?</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What is the immediate benefit of changing our structure of operation to one without a single paid pastor?</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The sad truth is that most church boards never bother to consider <em><strong>how much money could be saved for missionary support, the poor, and literature used to advance the furtherance of the Gospel, if they did not have to remunerate a full-time pastor</strong></em>.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Pastorates-for-pay have also clearly gotten out-of-hand. Of course, there are many pastors and ministers who labor for little pay. But the top tier pastors get paid 100s of thousands of dollars. And the televangelists get paid close to millions of dollars.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For a website that is dedicated to documenting the wealthy lifestyles of prominent pastors and televangelists, see <a href="http://www.inplainsite.org/html/tele-evangelist_lifestyles.html">http://www.inplainsite.org/html/tele-evangelist_lifestyles.html</a></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Moses As Pastor Prior to Jesus</span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">A congregational leader did not have a speaking role in Moses's contemplation. He led the people in and out of the congregational assembly, much like we suggested the bishop's role operated in the early church:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And Moses spake unto the LORD, saying, <sup>16 </sup>Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set <strong><em>a man over the congregation</em></strong>, <sup>17 </sup>Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as <strong><em>sheep which have no shepherd</em></strong>. <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Number 27:15</span></span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">See, <a href="http://reasontostand.org/archives/2009/10/06/the-unbiblical-clergylaity-division">Clergy-laity distinction is unbiblical</a> by Reason to Stand.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #000000;">Once THE PROPHET came, Moses made it clear that we should follow THE PROPHET. See Deuteronomy 18. See our article <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/532-the-jesus-words-only-principle-explained.html">The Jesus' Words Only Principle Explained</a>.</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Email Comments</span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hi Doug,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Many greeting from my self and my family! I have been studying several articles in your website and sharing with some friends.The article,"Words on Church Structure" was wonderful and we surprised how big difference the apostolic church and the modern churches! Bishop and pastors are more political rather than servants,the rule with iron fist instead of good example to the believers. I completely agree with</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">you on this among others. I think the church of Jesus Christ need over whole reformation on it doctrine or miss the mark of being a virgin to coming Groom. Keep us in prayer and have a bless day,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Julius (7/28/2013)</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I was reading (and printed out) your article on church structure and thought similar as to what you suggest here. Many thanks for the encouragement and links, I really appreciate it and feel supported. I feel within my spirit and have for many years that we must hold NT church meetings and your guide helped me very much !!! THANKS Blessings and Shalom Stella (June 24, 2011)</span></p>
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<hr />
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<h2><span style="color: #0000ff;"> Other Christians Are Speaking Out In Agreement</span></h2>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I found on August 30, 2014 a webpage <a href="http://jesusfamilies.org/hot_topics/church.htm">http://jesusfamilies.org/hot_topics/church.htm</a> that supports the same view, and recognizes Paul's contradiction of Jesus on this important topic.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I like his exegesis on John 10:16, and the translators' effort to deflect notice of Paul's contradictions of Jesus. So this article says:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd (Greek poimen)." (John 10:16)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">How many shepherds? Isn't it interesting that translators at some point decided to translate the Greek transliterated term 'poimen' as 'shepherd' in John chapter 10, and as 'pastor' in Ephesians chapter 4:11. It is the same exact term used in both places and the contexts are the same - they are both talking about leadership. Now why would those translators do that? Perhaps because the Way was too narrow for them and they liked Paul more than Jesus? Perhaps faithfulness to their religious system or prior translation traditions?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> The author has another section that I wish to excerpt in toto, as it is forcefully put so well:</span></p>
|
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<p> </p>
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: x-large; line-height: normal; margin-left: 60px;"><strong>Pay Other's To Follow Jesus For You</strong></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Sadly, Christianity as well as its messianic brethren, very much like their mutually self-serving system. They choose, hire and bless their leaders who essentially tell them they are accepted by God if they believe a certain set of doctrine and if they participate in the organization's meetings and rituals ' or at least give them money to support and run it. And of course the leaders are only too glad to tell the people what they want to hear and at the same time be provided a living by making weekly speeches called, 'sermons' or 'the teaching of God's Word' or some other such label. Their leaders also very much like having people say to them in the market place, 'oh, pastor, pastor'. They also get the seats of honor at all the important life events like baby christenings, marriages and funerals ' heck, most even get paid for presiding they are so esteemed! Of course many of their leaders actually think they are helping the people of their flock by substituting for the Good Shepherd, but oh how horribly deceived they are. They think that their counsel to their members is wise and good as it comes from 'a calling', experience, education, or 'God's Word' ' all the while they ignore the most important teachings of the real and living Word. </span></p>
|
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: x-large; line-height: normal; margin-left: 60px;">Please listen to what Jesus calls those leaders who accept money to 'pastor the flock':</p>
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<blockquote style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: x-large; line-height: normal; margin-left: 60px;">
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<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-size: large;">"<span style="color: #ff0000;">I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep</span>." (John 10:11-13)</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 60px;"> </p>
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: x-large; line-height: normal; margin-left: 60px;">For those willing to receive it, Jesus calls all men who usurp his role of the 'One Good Shepherd' and accept money to do so, 'hirelings'. And what does he say of the hireling? That when real trouble comes, you can expect him or her to say, 'well, it's been good knowing you, I'll pray for you, good bye'trust in the Lord!' When it really comes to laying down their literal life for you, they will fail, because they love their life in the world. This is why the Real Jesus of Nazareth is the only true "good Shepherd". He will not fail you, and he will lead you to his Father and Life eternal IF you are willing to "listen to HIM" (Matt. 17:5).</p>
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<div>
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<div>
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<h3>Recommendations</h3>
|
||||
<p><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
|
||||
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
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<p>None above affiliated with me</p> </div>
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<h1><span>Without Paul, What Does It Mean To Become A Christian?</span></h1>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">How do we lead someone to Christ if we no longer have the Pauline formula for salvation which is we must merely believe Jesus is Lord and resurrected? (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+10%3A8-9&version=ASV">Romans 10:8-9</a>.) What do we have if the gospel is not merely accepting that Jesus died for our sins? (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+corinthians+15%3A1-4&version=ASV">1 Cor. 15:1-4</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Listen to Jesus again. When Peter made the confession that Jesus is the “<strong><em>Messiah, the Son of the Living God,</em></strong>” Jesus replied that Peter was the rock upon which Jesus would build his “church,’ <em>i.e.</em>, assembly. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt+16%3A16-18&version=ASV">Matt. 16:16-18</a>.) If Jesus tells us this particular confession makes you a believing member of His church, then we need to be able to convince someone that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah (King), the Son of God of the Original Testament.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">We have ample confirmation that this is a vital step—a step overlooked in modern evangelism. John in the conclusion of his gospel says he could have included many more things about Jesus, but “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the<strong><em> Messiah, the Son of </em></strong><strong><em>God</em></strong>.” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+20%3A30-31&version=ASV">John 20:30-31</a>.) This is the <strong><em>believing</em></strong> that makes you a Christian, not the ideas put forth in Romans 10:8-9. It is thus no coincidence that John’s goal is we have a faith that identically matches the statement of Peter in Matthew 16:16-18. The goal of John is to evoke the same response from you and me that Peter gave Jesus: Jesus is Messiah - our King over us -- and the Son of God.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">A further example proving this is key is that after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ first effort was to explain the fulfilment of the prophecies about Himself:</span></p>
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||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27) (ASV)</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Likewise, Jesus in His ministry explained that true faith in Him comes from believing the prophecies about Him from the Law of Moses. Jesus says “<em><strong>if you believed Moses, you would believe me</strong></em>, for he wrote of me.” (John 5:46.) Moses gave an account of two highly specific prophecies about the Messiah: the Shiloh prophecy of Genesis ch. 49 and the Star Prophecy of Numbers ch. 24.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Furthermore, in the book of Acts, we also find a vivid reminder that conversion is recognition of Jesus as <em>Messhiach</em> in the prophetic sense. (Acts 8:31-34.) There we read of an Ethiopian eunuch who asks Philip to explain to him a Messianic passage from Isaiah. Philip does so. The Eunuch realizes Jesus is Messhiach in the prophetic sense. The Eunuch is converted and baptized.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This is also the message behind the salvation of the thief on the cross. He publicly confessed that Jesus was the coming king. The thief says “Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.” (Luke 23:42.) As we shall see below, the title Messiah was only used once in Scripture in a prophetic sense—in the book of Daniel. Instead, the typical prophecy is about a figure who is a coming ideal king whose kingdom will not end. The thief therefore was confessing Jesus was this coming king. The Rabbis had interpreted this king to be the Prince Messhiach of whom Daniel spoke. Thus, the Rabbis often gave this coming king the title of Messiah. The thief said the right thing under pressure. In response to the thief’s acknowledgment, Jesus says the thief will be with Him that day in Paradise. (Luke 23:43.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, unless we have these Original Testament Messianic prophecies in mind, how can we make someone confess Jesus is Messiah, the Son of the Living God? Without significant knowledge of these prophecies, any confession that Jesus is Messiah would simply be the meaningless recitation of words.</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 33.6363639831543px; font-size: 24px; color: #66869a; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span data-mce-mark="1">So What Is The Consequence Of This Confession?</span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">So what is the point of proving from prophecy Jesus is the Messiah King to come, the Son of the Living God? The thief on the cross knew the meaning. The Ethiopic eunuch knew. Everyone was waiting for "The Prophet" to come. In Jesus' time, everyone knew this confession above implicated the command of </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2018:17-19&version=ESV" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">Deuteronomy 18:17-18</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> -- the single most important passage for anyone claiming to be a Christian to know about (and which Peter in Acts 2 applied to Jesus). It says that God will require every man to obey every word of THE Prophet -- that is, the Messiah King, and this is because everything this prophet says is directly from God. No divine visions are involved which God says is not as clear as the direct mode He will communicate through The Prophet. (See Numbers 12:1-14) The quote from Deuteronomy 18:17-18 reads:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span id="en-ESV-5402" class="text Deut-18-17" style="color: #000000; line-height: normal;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" data-mce-mark="1">17 </span>And the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;" data-mce-mark="1">Lord [Yahweh]</span> said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.</span><span style="color: #000000; line-height: normal;" data-mce-mark="1"> </span><span id="en-ESV-5403" class="text Deut-18-18" style="color: #000000; line-height: normal;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" data-mce-mark="1">18 </span>I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and <em><strong>he shall speak to them all that I command him.</strong></em></span><span id="en-ESV-5404" class="text Deut-18-19" style="color: #000000; line-height: normal;" data-mce-mark="1"><span class="versenum" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" data-mce-mark="1">19 </span>And <strong><em>whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him</em></strong>.</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span class="text Deut-18-19" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: normal;">For more on this, see <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/532-the-jesus-words-only-principle-explained.html">The Jesus Words Only Principle Explained</a>.</span></p>
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<div class="Sect">
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<h2><span data-mce-mark="1">What Prophecies Do We Need to Study?</span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">So what prophecies should we learn about?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Previously, in my book Jesus’ Words Only, we learned about the Star Prophecy of Numbers 24, the Shiloh-Messiah prophecy of Genesis 49:10 et seq., and the precise prediction in Daniel 9:25-26. You have tasted but a small sample of the many prophecies which a follower of Messiah (Cristos in Greek) should know about and be able to explain. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">These exciting prophecies were intended as an objective way to prove who Jesus truly was. Jesus contemplated conversion was not simply an emotional feeling about Him. What passes for faith today is often merely the acceptance that Jesus is an atoning sacrifice. While true, standing alone, it is a merely an abstract hope that Jesus’ death means something to you. Unless you know the reason that Jesus’ death gives you hope, <em><strong>you merely have wishful thinking which you are mistaking for faith</strong></em>. Instead, you must know who Jesus truly was, why His sacrifice means something, and how to explain your hope in Jesus as Messiah - your King.<sup><strong>1</strong></sup></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In fact, Peter tells us we should know rationally how to prove the basis for our hope: "be ready to always give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Peter%203%3A15">1 Peter 3:15</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, if someone claims to be a convert, our new member screening should ask how they would prove Jesus is Messiah (King), Son of the Living God. If they lack any knowledge of the Law & Prophets sufficient to make the confession, they need to study so they can “give a reason for the hope that is in them.”</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Do you know the reason for your hope in Jesus as Messiah? Do you even know what the word Messiah—Cristos—means?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Most Christians think they have the whole story by accepting Jesus atoned for our transgressions. (Isaiah 53:1-12.) That aspect of prophecy, which almost all Christians know, does not by itself prove Jesus is Messiah. Many people have suffered on a cross. That the Messiah would suffer does not prove Jesus is Messiah. So do you know why Jesus fulfills the Messianic prophecies, and they point only to Jesus? And that accepting Jesus as Messiah means accepting Him as your spiritual King?</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span data-mce-mark="1">Direct Prophecies vs. Other Less Persuasive Prophecies</span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Original Testament is certainly sometimes entirely enigmatic about the Messiah. You have to pull together disparate verses to make a cogent whole—just as you must do to identify the Benjamite wolf from Genesis ch. 49. Once you do so, then the figure of Messiah clearly emerges, just as the figure of the Benjamite wolf emerges from the same process.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span data-mce-mark="1" style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In both Messianic and Benjamite wolf prophecies, the meaning sometimes is direct but other times it is by a metaphorical type. The latter type prophecy is not helpful to convince a skeptic. An example of a metaphorical type prophecy is that King Saul serves as a picture of Saul-Paul later: a Benjamite who after conversion resists giving the House of David its right of control over God’s people. King Saul is a perfect type of Paul, but if you are not already convinced Paul is like King Saul, you remain unpersuaded.</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span data-mce-mark="1">Direct Prophecies vs. Other Less Persuasive Prophecies</span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Among the messianic prophetic type prophecies, we find Israel is often a type for Jesus. Hosea says “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hos 11:1). In Matthew 2:15, we find this is cited as prophecy of Jesus—when Jesus’ parents return from Egypt where they took Jesus to protect Him from Herod. But who reading Hosea 11:1 would imagine this is a prophecy about Jesus? Only if you are otherwise aready convinced that Jesus is Messiah would you see the type that Israel served as a foreshadowing of what would happen to Messiah.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, because <em>type</em> prophecies are abstracted from a different context, they will not inspire confidence from a skeptic. Such prophecies are therefore not convincing to a non-believer.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Another form of indirect proof that has no benefit to a skeptic is what I call potentially biased specific details. These are proofs from specific details that a skeptic would easily believe are fabricated as part of the Christian gospel. For example, whether Zecharias prophesied Messiah would be sold for 30 pieces of silver or not cannot convince a skeptic. The only proof it ever happened is in the gospel accounts which easily could be fabrications.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The only proof that can make a convert is <strong><em>direct evidence</em></strong>. Such evidence means direct prophecies from Hebrew Scripture that do not depend on you trusting the New Testament’s accuracy. Rather, you assume a skeptic will read the Gospel accounts provisionally to simply prove to themself the bare fact that some people in the first century A.D. attributed certain words to a man named Yahshua / Yeshua (Jesus). If they are truly seeking God, they will <em><strong>admit the loftiness, sublimeness and brilliant wittiness of Jesus that appears in no other literature before or since</strong></em>.<sup>2</sup> Then in light of this, a skeptic can read the Hebrew Scriptures to see if there is prophecy, or a combination of prophecy, that only Jesus could match which simultaneously explains the amazing literary achievement of the gospels themselves.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Even the famous historian Will Durant recognizes the ‘miracle’ of the literary achievement of the gospels apart from whether they are true or false:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic, and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the gospels. After two centuries of higher criticism [i.e. unkind criticism] the outlines of the life, character, and teaching of Christ remain reasonably clear, and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man.<strong><sup>3</sup></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<div class="Sect">
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">A non-traditionalist as honest as Thomas Jefferson agreed. The writer of our Declaration of Independence also created a selection of Jesus’ moral statements in what is called <em>Jefferson’s Bible</em>. In describing his goal, Jefferson said Jesus’ words represent “the most sublime of morality which has ever been exhibited to man.”<sup>4</sup> Jefferson added that “the moral precepts of Jesus were more pure, correct and sublime than those of the ancient philosophers.”<sup>5</sup> And finally, “a more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen.”<sup>6</sup></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, Christians should take advantage of the greatness of Jesus’ thought to convince people what explains that greatness. We should focus on direct prophecies to convert people who have recognized the gospels represent a virtual miracle by their mere existence apart from any truth they may contain. On the other hand, indirect prophecies are worthless in evangelism. They can nourish you, as a believer, but they will not convince a non-believer.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">With these points in mind, let’s explore what direct prophecies Jesus intended you to use to obtain a convert in conjunction, of course, with the bare fact that an extraordinary literary achievement appears in these first century gospel accounts.</span></p>
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||||
<h2><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The First Direct Prophecies of a Messianic Figure</span></strong></span></h2>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">First, in Genesis 3:15, we see a prophecy that a man would be bruised in his heal but later crush the serpent. This portends a human figure would be injured yet destroy Satan in the end. Then in Genesis 49:10 et seq., we see a prince of peace (Shiloh) one day will come and whose garments will be “washed in the blood of grapes.” He will be a ruler someday over Judea. This would be in the latter days. In Isaiah 63:1 et seq., God speaks of Himself coming with “glorious apparel” but His garments are “red” because of treading the winepress. (Isaiah 63:2.) There is no mistaking this is God Yahweh:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment. (Isa 63:3)(ASV).</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">When we pull these verses together, we see God so far tells us that the slayer of the serpent is a human figure whose heal is initially bruised by Satan. God tells us next that Shiloh (a human prince of peace - Shiloh being a form of Shalom meaning peace) will come to rule Judea / Judah and his garments will be splattered with the winepress. Then God reveals in Isaiah 63 that He Himself is within this human figure with blood on his garments - the Shiloh Prince of Peace. The wine is blood, not real wine. The nature of Messiah is emerging slowly. (Provide a preview to your listener that Jesus said the "father dwells in me." John 14:10.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Next, David in Psalm 72 speaks of a king that is an ideal king. As we read it, this king goes from being ambiguous on divinity to being more and more certainly apparently indwelled by God Himself. Of this king, David prophesies a universal kingdom: “Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; All nations shall serve him.” (Psa 72:11) All peoples will constantly focus on this King and pray for him. “And men shall pray for him continually; They shall bless him all the day long.”(Psa 72:15).</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Star Prophecy</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Star Prophecy of Balaam of Numbers 24:16-19 now takes on importance. It tells us more about the King of Psalm 72 who will rule the world. This prophecy predicts a star would rise “over Judea” that would signal the birth of one who is destined to rule over the </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">nations.</span><sup style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; line-height: 1.3em;">7</sup><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> There is actual astronomical evidence for such a “star” at the time of Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This “star” actually was the conjunction of several planets that would appear to humans as a new star—an event occuring every 900 years. The conjoined-planets rose in the morning at crucial junctures from August 12, 3 B.C. to June 17, 2 B.C.<sup>8</sup> If you tracked their conjoined-motion from appearance-event to appearance-event (which was sometimes separated by several months), and you lived in Mesopotamia, where the Magi likely came from, then these planets would appear in your eastern sky and be reappearing in a gradual western and southernly direction—directly drawing you toward Jerusalem. (Bethlehem is 6 miles from Jerusalem.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The correct translation of Matthew 2:2 reveals this is what the Magi were doing. If you are aware of how astronomical events can provide directions, Matthew’s language signifies they were doing morning measurements of the star’s rising point to detect direction. However, the King James version does not make this clear, having the Magi say “we have seen his star in the east.” This misleads some to think the Magi saw it when they were living in the East. (Barnes.) A more accurate translation is “we have seen his star at its rising.” (Robertson Word Pictures.) As astronomers, they were doing morning measurements. This is when stars rise—actually the visible planets rise—but the ancients called them stars. Tracking that way, one would know precisely what direction to follow if one believed the star was directing you toward a place on earth. As the rising point and motion upward changed each time the star was spotted, a direction could be detected. It would be as if the moon rose at a gradually shifting point and moved upward in the sky to the east, west, north or south. Using the motion as a compass, you can find a location on earth corresponding to the star’s location.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Interestingly enough, as Carroll explains, this movement of the “star” eventually stopped at a significant juncture. This conjunction disconnected at precisely December 25, 2 B.C. On that date, Jupiter, the largest of the conjoined planets, and visible to the naked eye, would appear to “stop” in the sky, as long as you now had arrived at Jerusalem. This was Jupiter’s normal stationary position at dawn. (Jesus was already born for some time when the Magi arrived, so this is not a way to know the month and day of Jesus’ birth. Carrol presents the case for an actual birth in September.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Is this 2-3 B.C. conjunction of planets the star of Matthew 2:2? Yes, for it is corroborated by the fact we know of the census of Caesar Augustus. It was an oath-taking process required of all people in the Roman empire and client kingdoms. This began in the late summer or early autumn of 3 B.C. So if this is the same census spoken about in the gospels, it would bring Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem by the time Jupiter “stopped” over Jerusalem (6 miles away)— December 25, 3 B.C.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">It likewise coincides with Luke saying Jesus’ ministry began in the 15th year of Tiberius. (Luke 3:1.) Using Eastern calculations, Ernest Martin says this would be anytime between Tishri 27-28 A.D.<sup>9 </sup>Luke likewise says Jesus was “about 30 years old” when He began His ministry. (Luke 3:23.) This means Luke is saying Jesus was born about 3 B.C.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Accordingly, there is astronomical proof to corroborate Luke’s statement. It was in that period of 3-2 B.C. that a new “star” appeared to persons living East of Judea, which if tracked in the morning to detect direction, would lead one directly to Judea and to Jerusalem.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Why were the Magi looking for such a star at this precise time? Why did they seize upon this morning star movement in 3-2 B.C., and then start tracking and following its directions?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The answer makes us turn to the most convincing and undeniable prophecy of Messiah in the Original Testament.</span></p>
|
||||
<h2>The Prophecy of Daniel</h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">How would the Magi in Matthew 2:1-2 possibly have known of this Star Prophecy and be on the lookout for a star in 3-2 B.C.? The answer is simple: the prophet Daniel was appointed head of the Magi of Babylon (Dan. 2:48) in 604 B.C. The Magi would have learned through Daniel the words of the Law of Moses. This would include the Star Prophecy in Numbers ch. 24.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In fact, this Star Prophecy appears to have had international recognition by the time of Christ even beyond the Magi. Suetonius, a Roman historian, wrote in his Lives of the Twelve Emperors about this prophecy circulating in Christ’s day. Suetonius did not call it the Star Prophecy, but one can readily see its outlines in his discussion. Suetonius wrote:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">There had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief that it was fated at that time for a man coming from Judaea to rule the world. This prediction, referring to the emperor of Rome, as it turned out, the Jews took to themselves, and they revolted accordingly [in 66 A.D.]. (Suetonius, Vespasian 4.5.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Yet, why would the Magi be looking for the Star in 3-2 B.C. in particular?</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The answer is that Daniel in 604 B.C. gave a precise prophecy on the date for the appearance and death of Messiah, using that title specifically</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Up to this point in Scripture, we have seen there were only enigmatic references to a Jewish Messiah figure. He was some amazing king or prince with special qualities. How did the label Messhiach get attached to this figure? Kings were all annointed in those days as part of their installation ceremony. Messhiach means in English <em><strong>annointed one</strong></em>. Thus, ancient Jewish writers began calling this emerging princely or king figure the Messhiach.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In fact, in Scripture, Daniel was the first to specifically use the title Messhiach to describe this prince figure. Daniel was also the first to predict the precise date of the appearance and “cutting off” of this prince Messiah. In fact, this is the only passage in the Original Testament that uses the word Messiah (“Annointed One”) in a prophetic direct sense. All other Messianic prophecies actually only refer to a mysterious ruler / king who is coming.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Daniel prophesied in 604 B.C. that the prince “Messiah” would come and be “cut off” (karath) -- meaning 'killed' -- after 69 periods of "seven" (typically translated as weeks) from the time the order would go forth to rebuild the temple. (Dan. 9:25-26.) The Bible counts "sevens" for days or "years," as the Sabbath rest of the land was every "seven" of years, i.e., a "week" of years. With that in mind, now read Daniel 9:25:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one [Messhiach], the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore [<em>i.e</em>., 60] and two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times. (Dan 9:25)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">And after the threescore and two weeks [i.e., the end of the 69 periods of seven] shall the anointed one [Messhiach] be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come <em><strong>shall destroy the city and the sanctuary</strong></em>; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined. (Dan 9:26)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">One can also see in verse 26 that Daniel prophesies the destruction of the Temple, which took place in 70 A.D. If Jesus was not the Messiah, then we must find someone else prior to 70 A.D. who was the Messiah. We would have to assume we simply have ignored the true Messiah all this time.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Now this prophecy of the appearance and the “cut[ing] off” of Messiah prince has a precise time prediction: it is 69 weeks after the order to rebuild Solomon’s Temple. It laid in ruins when Daniel spoke. Thus, also please realize there is another prophecy in this verse, namely that the Temple had to be rebuilt before Messiah prince came. Then verse 26 prophesies this rebuilt temple would be destroyed soon after the Messiah is cut off. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">So what is 69 weeks? As mentioned before, it is typical to call a seven year period a week due to the Sabbath-cycle of resting the land every seven years. Thus, 69 weeks of years equals 483 years.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">When did the order go forth to rebuild the temple? The <em>Jewish Encyclopedia</em> says this order went forth 444 B.C. In the article “Nehemiah,” in The Jewish Encyclopedia of Judaism (1989) at 520, we read that Nehemiah</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">arrived in Jerusalem in 444 BCE with an appointment as governor of Judah . . . [and his] first action was to rebuild . . . [the Temple of] Jerusalem.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jews, of course, have no vested interest to assist Christians prove Jesus is Messiah. Thus, if their own reference works say this order was in 444 B.C., or thereabouts, then we can accept this as undisputed fact.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Now what is 483 years after 444 B.C.? Do we use our Julian system of years? Or was a year differently defined in the Bible? The same encyclopedia says:</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Jewish Calendar is based on a lunar year of 12 months, each month of 29 or 30 days [i.e., 360 days]. (<em>Encyclopedia of Judaism, supra,</em> at 145)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Bible thus is based on a lunar year. Using this 360-day lunar calendar, 483 lunar years after 444 B.C. is A.D. 33. This is because 173,880 days (483 x 360) equals 476 solar years. When you move 476 solar years beyond 444 B.C., you land directly upon the year 33 A.D. Daniel thus said Messiah is to come and be cut off in 33 A.D.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This is the very time in which Jesus lived and his followers claimed He was crucified in Jerusalem. Thus, the Magi could deduce that anywhere within a generation (40 years) prior to 33 A.D. or thereabouts, there would be the Star rising over Judea to signify the birth of the new king. Perhaps they were on the watch as early as 7 B.C.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Daniel’s prophecy is astonishing in detail. The Messiah must come after the Temple is rebuilt but before it is destroyed again. This puts his time frame as between 444 B.C. and 70 A.D. Then Daniel prophesies the precise time of Messiah’s coming and being “cut off” as 33 A.D. or thereabout. One can honestly say that if someone in Jesus’ era was not the Messiah, Daniel’s prophecy never can come true.</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Cut Off By Piercing</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Even though Daniel is the clearest Messianic prophecy, and incapable of any misunderstanding, we are left with a puzzle. Who is this Messiah? If he can be murdered, how can he rule the world? (Numbers ch. 24.) If he can be murdered, how could he be the divine figure of Psalm 72 who appears to both King and indwelled by the Father? If he can be killed, how will he kill Satan? (Gen. 3:15.) It is through the prophet Zechariah that this quandry is solved.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In Zechariah, we read a prophecy in which God, using a first person direct object me, refers to Himself being pierced. We read:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they<em><strong> shall look unto me whom they have pierced</strong></em>; and they shall mourn for <em><strong>him</strong></em>, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. (Zec 12:10) (ASV)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">One can see that after God says He Himself is pierced, He disjoins Himself and says they shall “mourn for him.” The pierced one appears to be distinct from God yet somehow God identifies Himself with Him -- which Jesus's explanation perfectly suits as the solution -- "the father dwells in me." (John 14:10.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This strange change from <em><strong>me</strong></em> to <strong><em>him</em></strong> compels us to accept Jesus' explanation when one realizes the unparalleled literary achievement found in the gospels. There we find the picture of a man named Jesus whose words are extraordinarily brilliant and lofty—one could say divine if one ‘didn’t know better.’ We are told that He is pierced by a spear. Now the passage makes perfect sense, when we are honest enough to admit the words and life of this man are such an extraordinary literary achievement that we have no better explanation than what Zechariah offers: this person is somehow "me" (God) and "him" - a son who dies and is mourned in death somehow. The following statement by Jesus perfectly explains Zechariah: the "father dwells in me." (John 14:10.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">While that spear-piercing story could be added as a fabrication in the gospels, we must realize that unless it truly happened, then how do we explain Zechariah saying God Himself will be pierced and then everyone will look on “him” and mourn for him as for an only son? That’s far harder to explain than to believe the gospel account that Jesus was pierced by a spear. The gospel account is the only way Zechariah’s piercing prophecy ever can make sense. It is otherwise totally baffling, which is what makes the gospel account such a non-intuitive fulfilmment worthy of credibility. No one would have conceived solving the puzzle by an elaborate ruse of creating the figure of Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This Zechariah prophecy continues. It promises that in that day of the piercing of "me" (God) that forgiveness will then flow from Jerusalem. We read:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. (Zec 13:1)(ASV)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Somehow this piercing of "me" and mourning for him is the signal of the fountain of living water that will bring cleaning and forgiveness of sin. One might suspect Christians wrote this prophetic work. However, Zechariah is not a Christian work, but an Original Testament prophet to the Jewish people <em><strong>sounding like a Christian would talk.</strong></em></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This day of piercing also signals the end of any new prophets: the <em><strong>him</strong></em> and the <strong><em>me</em></strong> are the last prophet. (Zechariah 13:3-5.) “I will cause the prophets...to pass out of the land.” (Zech. 13:2.) Anyone who thereafter claims to be a prophet, everyone will know to call him a “liar” or “one that speaks lies.” (Zech.13:3.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Incidentally, if we apply this last prophecy to determine the inspired portion of the New Testament -- of course after John the Baptist who precedes Jesus as a prophet, then only Jesus in Matthew, John and Revelation can be inspired. No one who lives after Jesus is a prophet (unless raised from the dead, which will happen according to the Book of Revelation for the two witnesses—who some believe are Moses and Enoch.) Thus, Paul could not possibly have been a prophet because he came after Christ. Just one more reason to hold tightly to the words of Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Micah Says A Bethlehemite Shall Be From Everlasting</span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Next, when one provisionally listens to the claim of Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem, all the pieces fit in light of Micah 5:2.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. (Mic 5:2)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, in Micah, God significantly uncloaks His meaning. The human who would be pierced and simultaneously be "me"—God Almighty—would come out of Bethlehem “to me.” This Bethlehemite comes to God, and God comes to Him, and identifies with him, as Jesus says -- "the Father dwells in me." (John 14:10.) The Father's journey is from everlasting—and He will enter the flesh of this Man, like He dwells at the Temple. While the human will grow up and have his heal be bruised (Gen. 3:15) and He will be “cut off” in 33 A.D. (Dan. 9:25-26), his death will serve to provide grace and forgiveness (Zech. chs. 12-13). This same figure is destined to be “ruler in Israel...” He is Shiloh. His garments will be splattered with blood (Gen. ch. 49), but He will reign as the eternal king (Psalm 72). And apparently, this eternal king -- while He visually appears to us as Jesus -- is the Father dwelling in Jesus as His shekinah presence resides in Jesus. (John 14:10.) Jesus explains how this happened: "the Father dwells in me." John 14:10.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> </span></p>
|
||||
<h2><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Isaiah 53: Another Prophecy of Messiah</span></strong></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Leading up to Isaiah 49, we get a glimpse at a figure who is fufilled prophetically in Jesus:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 12pt;"><em>I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">." </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Isaiah</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 49:6</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This light will come from the Torah / Law spreading out to the nations. <em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Isaiah</span></em> 51:4 reads:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> "Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a <em>light to the nations</em>."</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then we come to Isaiah 53.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">To avoid any claim of bias, let us rely upon Isaiah 53:1-12 from circa 250 BC in the <em>Dead Sea Scroll Bible </em>(Abegg, Flint & Ulrich)(1999) at 359-60. These modern translators and scholars -- Abegg, Flint & Ulrich -- borrowed from tradition to also not write down YHWH. Instead, they replaced YHWH with "LORD." However, we will note where YHWH appears in the DSS of Isaiah 53. (On where YHWH belongs in Isaiah 53 DSS, see this<a href="http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/dead-sea-scrolls-2.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;"> link</a>.) Thus, Isaiah 53 reads in the DSS from 250 BC:</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the YHWH / LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should look at him. 3 He was despised and rejected by others, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. He was despised and rejected by others, and like one from whom people hide their faces, and we despised him, and we did not value him. 4 Surely he has borne our sufferings and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken and struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was <strong><em>wounded for our transgressions</em></strong>, and he was crushed for our iniquities; and the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each of us, to his own way; and the YHWH / <em><strong>LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. </strong></em>7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 From detention and judgment he was taken away. And who can even think about his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, he was stricken for the transgression of my people 9 Then they made his grave with the wicked and with rich people his tomb although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the YHWH / LORD was willing to crush him and he made him suffer. Although you make his soul an offering for sin, and he will see his offspring, and he will prolong his days, and the will of the YHWH / LORD will triumph in his hand. 11 Out of the suffering of his soul<strong><em> he will see light </em></strong>and find satisfaction; And through his knowledge, his servant, the righteous one, will make many righteous, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will alot him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life to death, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressions.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 33.6363639831543px; font-size: 24px; color: #66869a; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Isaiah 53 Fulfilled: He Will See The Light (Of Life) - Verse 11</h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The NIV note to 53:11 says that Isaiah 53:11 in the Dead Sea Scrolls says the Messiah figure, after suffering as the sacrifice of God, will see the "light (of life) [the 'of life' NIV implies]:</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">he will see the light of life<sup>[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah%2053&version=NIV#fen-NIV-18723d" title="See footnote d" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">d</a>]</sup> Note D: "Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint);<em><strong> Masoretic Text does not</strong></em>have <em>the light of life." </em>See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah%2053&version=NIV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">Note D to Isaiah 53:11</a> in NIV.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jeff Benner in his article, "<a href="http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/31_selections.html" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">Selections from the Isaiah Scroll</a>," reproduces a copy of Isaiah 53:11 from the Dead Sea Scrolls from at least 125 BCE:</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><img alt="Isaiah 53:11" src="http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/files/31_selections3.jpg" /></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">He reports as to the above:</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The underlined phrase [in the Dead Sea Scroll] reads "mey'amal naphshoh yireh or vayis'ba." In the Masoretic text this phrase is written as "</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">mey'amal naphsho yireh yis'ba." Without even knowing Hebrew</span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 12pt;"><em>one can see that the Dead Sea Scroll includes some information that is not in the Masoretic text</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">. The Masoretic text translates to "from the labor of his soul, he will see, he will be satisfied". The Dead Sea Scroll text translates to "from the labor of his soul, he will see</span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 12pt;"> </strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>light and</strong></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> he will be satisfied."</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, those who trust the Dead Sea Scrolls as more reliable here find a significant prophecy that the Messiah who after performing the sacrifice for us, shall see "light." This implies the resurrection. But for those who follow Messiah but believe the text preserved in 900 CE by the Masoretes, believe Isaiah only prophesied in verse 11 that Messiah will simply "see." Each believer must decide which manuscript they think is more reliable based upon the available evidence. It is clear that the Masorete text is missing what Messiah sees. It only says "he will see..." but does not say what He sees. I hope that helps believers to consider whether the Dead Sea Scrolls from 250 BC are more reliable than the Masorete text of 900 AD. I think so, and thus Isaiah 53 has an amazing series of prophecies that match the Gospels, which appear historical, and most of all, could not make up a resurrection account unless something happened which the authorities could not defy. </span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This passage in Isaiah 53 gives each believer an opportunity to explain the fact of the resurrection, and that it was specifically prophesied.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> </span></p>
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<h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 33.6363639831543px; font-size: 24px; color: #66869a; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God Tells Us This Branch Is Named after Yahweh</h2>
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<p id="LinkTarget_413"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Finally, as difficult as it may be to understand how God could exist in human form, God gave us this picture again clearly in Jeremiah 23:6. Only by someone like Jesus’ coming does this verse finally make sense. We read:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. (Jer 23:5)</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his <b><i>name</i></b> whereby he shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness. (Jer 23:6) (ASV)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The ancient Jews understood from this that Messiah must come from the lineage of David. He would be a branch of David’s father Jesse. The Jews identified this verse therefore as a key Messianic prophecy. Importantly, the Jews in ancient times agreed in Midrash Mishle 57a that one of the eight names of Messiah in Scripture is Yahweh Zidkenu (Yahweh Our Righteousness).<sup>10</sup></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">It was only in modern times that some Jewish translators have changed this passage in English translation to read “Yahweh will call him Our Righteousness.” (Keil & Delitzsch.) “But this rendering is rejected by most Jewish commentators as being at variance with the accents.” (Id.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I would prefer to trust the pre-Christian Jewish view that said Messiah would be called by the name Yahwh Zidkenu. The modern Jewish translation is obviously biased. Once we acknowledge the correct reading, we have a serious dilemma.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">How could a human born in the lineage of David be indeed called by the name Yahweh? No doubt prior to Jesus the Jews assumed there was hyperbole in the verse, and the use of a hyphenated name using Yahweh as one part. After the appearance of a person like Jesus whose words are so lofty and who spoke so authoritatively, as if God Himself spoke directly through Jesus, why should we doubt this passage means literally what it says? Jesus is the only person in human history whose words could qualify Him to be named after Yahweh speaking from within the flesh of a true human being named Jesus-- a name that combines Yahweh and shut meaning salvation, hence meaning Salvation of Ywhawh.</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">FOOTNOTE 10.Jeremiah appears to also call Jerusalem by the name “Jehovah our Righteousness” in Jeremiah 33:15-16. Some rely upon this to dismiss Jeremiah 23:5. They read Jerusalem back into Jeremiah 23:6 as if Jerusalem, not a branch of Jesse, were named after Jehovah / Yahweh. However, I find it harder to imagine an inanimate city is named after Jehovah / Yahweh than to believe some human heir of Jesse / David could be named after Jehovah. The resolution may be that we find garbled syntax in Jeremiah 33:15-16. Thus, it is not altogether clear that Jerusalem is in view. Nevertheless, if God says a city is named after Himself (obviously dwelling there), then that does not negate God also says a human heir of Jesse is named after Yahweh Himself (obviously dwelling in the human).</span></p>
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<p id="LinkTarget_414"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> </span></p>
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<h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 33.6363639831543px; font-size: 24px; color: #66869a; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What Does Son of the Living God Mean?</h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">There is one more mystery to the confession of Jesus as Messiah. We must confess Jesus is the “Son of the Living God.” (Matt. 16:16-17.) What does Son of the Living God mean? It means the ideal king of Psalm 72. It is also the figure whom Psalm 2 tells us has been given judgment over the world.</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Yet I have set my king Upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psa 2:6)</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I will tell of the decree: Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son; This day have I begotten thee. (Psa 2:7)</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psa 2:8)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.(Psa 2:9)</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">****</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Serve Jehovah with fear, And rejoice with trembling. (Psa 2:11)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, For his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all they that take refuge in him. (Psa 2:12)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Son of God is the one portrayed as a king to rule the world. He has been delegated to hold God’s wrath. You are to serve Yahweh with fear, but then you are told to fear the anger of the Son for He holds all judgment of God in His hand. Thus, you are told to fear both Yahweh and the Son. While their titles/names are distinct, the fear we are to hold is equivalent.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">What about the fact Psalm 2:6 says the Son is “begotten” of God? This does not mean the figure prophesied as from “everlasting” (Micah) and “Yahweh Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah) has somehow become less than indwelled by God because Jesus is God’s “begotten” Son. Some early in Church history thought too narrowly about this. Arius, Bishop of Nicomedia, in about 306 A.D. taught Jesus could not be the dwelling of God because of the “begotten” language we find in the New Testament.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, Arianism, as it is called, did not realize that if God dwelled in completely human flesh, then in a true sense an eternal being became present in a begotten human at some point. This begotten nature of Jesus is undeniable but it does not mean the eternal God present in Jesus was begotten.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, this </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">begotten</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> issue raised another problem for the </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">early church. The question was whether this occurred at Jesus’ bap</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">tism or His birth. It truly makes no difference.</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><sup>11</sup></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> However, some thought it did help Arius’ arguments if this indwelling took place at Jesus’ baptism. Unfortunately, opponents of Arius' arguments -- who became the voice of orthodoxy in the 300s -- chose to change the account of Jesus’ baptism to eliminate the </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">begotten</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> language in that context. The pre-Arius original</span></span></p>
|
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<hr /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><br /></span>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">FOOTNOTE 11 Another possibility is that while Jesus was </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">begotten</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> by the Holy Spirit with Mary, the Holy Spirit did not occupy Jesus until His baptism. This would allow the words “this day have I begotten thee” to be more literally applied. It also gives more significance to the “Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove” on Jesus . This possibility freightens people because then Jesus without the Holy Spirit and prior to being “begotten” as God’s Son had to live with temptation for almost 30 years. Yet, God-the-Father through His angels could have helped pro</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">tect Jesus. (Matt. 18:10.) While I do not necessarily endorse Jesus became the Son of God at His baptism, I also recognize there is nothing significantly changed about Jesus’ nature if we accept this. For at some point—whether at His baptism or at His human conception, Jesus became divine by God’s eternal Spirit occupying Jesus’ human flesh. What can it matter when this precisely happens?</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">[Inciden</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">tally, the Ebionites were accused in the Fourth Century of believing Jesus was born a human and later became the Son of God. For this, they were accused of heresy.]</span></span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">version clearly said that God-the-Father spoke from heaven the words of Psalm 2:7, which is why we can know Psalm 2 certainly applies to Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Matthew's Gospel clearly originally had the voice from heaven speak at Jesus' baptism, and say "This Day I have begotten you." The dove physically entered Jesus in the original version. See <a href="/component/imes%20new%20roman1,%20times;_content/?view=article&id=235%3Ahebrew-matthew-baptismal-account&catid=16%3Ahebrew-matthew">Hebrew Matthew Baptismal Account.</a> This is proven by numerous quotes of Matthew from the 90s to 300s AD. (In a couple of paragraphs down, we will present some of the evidence.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Likewise, Luke 3:22 originally said God-the-Father says in a loud voice from Heaven, “Thou Art my Son. This day I have begotten thee.” This language actually appears in old versions of Luke 3:22.<sup>12</sup> However, our oldest manuscripts of Luke date to the post-Arian controversy,<em> i.e</em>, post 306 A.D. All these oldest manuscripts were changed completely. They read, “This is My Son in whom I am well pleased.” The original variant—“Thou Art my Son. This day I have begotten thee”— appears only in later ancient manuscripts of Luke. However, this fact proves little, because it is merely a fortuity of what manuscripts survived. Thus, the fact the “oldest reliable manuscripts” are lacking “Thou Art my Son. This day I have begotten thee” does not carry sufficient weight to overcome the facts discussed below which prove an alteration in Luke and Matthew had previously taken place.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">While it is perhaps disconcerting to know that pious Christians took such liberties with Scripture, we cannot deny they did so. In our New Testament, the original version of Jesus’ baptism is quoted twice in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In Hebrews 1:5, the author quotes apparently the original version of Luke 3:22 and Matthew's Baptismal Account. In Hebrews 1:5, we read that that unlike anything ever said to the angels, God said to Jesus something unique. “For unto which of the angels said He [i.e., the-Father] at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” This was mentioned again in Hebrews 5:5: “So also Christ</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">FOOTNOTE 12.On Luke 3:22, it is said: “Other ancient authorities read You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/BIBLE/ LUK/LUK3.HTM (accessed 10/05). This is Hope University’s website. See also, “Some manuscripts ‘beloved Son; today I have begotten you.’” http:// www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Luke+3 (accessed 10/05). This version of Luke appears in the Greek Western type text known as Codex D. Matthew’s version of the baptism at Matthew 3:17 in the same Codex reads differently than it does today. It mentions the Holy Spirit descending as a dove upon Jesus. It is interesting that Epiphanius says the Hebrew version of Matthew of the Ebionites had that language too. This reading is also present in the DuTillet Hebrew Matthew.</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> </span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but He [<em>i.e</em>., the Father] that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.” (Heb 5:5.) Hebrews thus twice alludes to how Luke 3:22 and Matthew originally must have read of what transpired at Jesus’ baptism.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This was again referenced in Acts. “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” (Acts 13:33 KJV.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, there is no reason to fear applying Psalm 2:7 to Jesus. The earliest church did not see this as any problem. Only when Arianism arose after 306 A.D., the church thought changing God’s word was the way to defend itself rather than explaining how all the prophecies tie together that a human would be indwelled by God - both are simultaneously pierced in Zechariah - and the true human remains a “begotten Son” in human history. (Psalm 2.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">There is no doubt how the original Jesus’ baptism once read to include the quote from Psalm 2:7. The original version of Luke and Matthew is quoted numerous times in the early ‘patristic’ writings between 125 </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">A.D. and 325 A.D.: First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians; First Apology of Justin; Dialogue of Justin with Tryphon, A Jew; The Instructor; The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or, Concerning Chastity; </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.</span><sup style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; line-height: 1.3em;">13</sup></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">See our article <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/235-hebrew-matthew-baptismal-account.html">Hebrew Matthew -Baptismal Account</a>.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">God certainly wanted us to know Psalm 2:7 applied to Jesus. He quoted it in a loud voice from Heaven at Jesus’ baptism.</span></p>
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</div>
|
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</div>
|
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<div class="Sect">
|
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<h5 id="LinkTarget_415"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">What It Means to Confess the Son Identified in Psalm 2:7</span></strong></h5>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, because Jesus is the King and Son of God from Psalm 2, you can know that by confessing Jesus as Son of the Living God, you are acknowledging He is the judge of the world. Your kissing Him (Psalm 2:6) is a symbolic way of showing submission to a king.</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">FOOTNOTE 13.For a thorough review of all these authorities, see online resources at www.jesuswordsonly.com.</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(1 Sam. 10:1.) You are subject to His jurisdiction. Therefore, take refuge in Him. If you fail to do so, Psalm 2:12 says you will “perish in <em><strong>the way</strong></em>.”</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Barnes says Psalm 2:12 thus means in Hebrew that if you fail to take refuge in this King, “you are<strong><em> lost in respect of The Way</em></strong>.” (Barnes, Ps. 2:12.)</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Now you can understand why Christianity was first called The Way, e.g., Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22. The title The Way was meant to harken to Psalm 2:12. This was meant to invoke memory of Jesus’ identification as the Son of God mentioned in Psalm 2:6-7, and our need to Kiss the Son, submit to his Royal Authority and accept Him as our Judge on Judgment Day. If you failed to do so, “you are lost in respect of <em><strong>The Way</strong></em>.”</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Since Psalm 2 is the only Hebrew Scripture describing the Son of God as such, we need to recognize its prophetic fulfillment in Jesus. We can now see the many important lessons Psalm 2 has for us when we confess Jesus as “the Son of God.” Such confession is not meant to confess Jesus is simply begotten by God and hence Jesus became His Son in human history. Rather, it means we confess that Jesus is the Divine Son whom God / the Father has made King forever and to whom our homage and allegiance is owed as the king appointed over us. We must Kiss the Son, lest He be angry. We must take refuge in Him or lose our way.</span></p>
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<p id="LinkTarget_416"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1">It Is A Personal Struggle To Change the Conversion Message</span></strong></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">People are afraid to give up the Pauline approach to conversion. However, we must realize we have to learn a new way to convert people. We are afraid of change. We are afraid to learn the way God intended people to find Messiah. However, it is simple: people need to hear the words of Jesus, realize His brilliant and lofty sentiments qualify Him for recognition as more than just a wise man or ordinary prophet, and</span> <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">then you introduce the prophecies from Scripture about Messiah— that He would be human and have a divine presence indwelling Him. This explains the amazing wit and authority that Jesus had even while talking in the most coherent speech known by then or now. In particular, learn the amazing prophecy from Daniel 9:25-26.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Can A Messianic Faith Come By Reason At All?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Because Paul teaches absent the Holy Spirit no one can confess Jesus is Messiah (1 Cor. 12:3), some claim that faith in Jesus can only be supernaturally bestowed. They insist it cannot be rationally deduced. They think it is unnecessary to teach any of these prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus. The Holy Spirit instead will tell people who Jesus is without our help. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Yet, Apostle John wrote his gospel so that you realize from sitting and reading his gospel account that Jesus is the “Messiah, the Son of God.” (John 20:30-31.) Furthermore, why do you think Jesus after the resurrection and before the ascension took time to discuss the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures and how they proved who He was? (Luke 24:27.) Because reason has no role in developing faith in Jesus? Of course not.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul has put a fog over your ability to see the obvious. Evangelism is learning how to reason with people from Scripture. As Peter advises, you need to learn how to give a reason to others for what you believe about Jesus.</span></p>
|
||||
<p id="LinkTarget_418"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">The First Step To Acceptance of the Messianic Prophecies Is Restored Respect for the Law of Moses</span></strong></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Unfortunately, modern Christians have such disrespect for the Original Testament as abolished, etc., that they spend no time understanding how to defend Moses was a Prophet. If a Christian cannot instill respect for the Law given Moses in a non-believer, because a Christian lacks such respect themselves, then how can a Christian possibly give the conversion message that Jesus intended? Jesus raises this point twice.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus says: “<em><strong>If they hear not Moses</strong></em>, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:31.) Trust in Moses’ words is a reliable way to truly know Jesus was Messiah. Jesus says “if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.” (John 5:46.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus expected that once you learned what the Father teaches in the Law given Moses and the Prophets then you would come to Jesus.</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me.(John 6:45)</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Father gave us the Law and the Prophets so we could listen to the Father and learn from Him. When Jesus compliments Peter on his confession that Jesus is “Messiah, Son of the Living God,” Jesus says this was revealed to Peter by “my Father who is in heaven,” not the Holy Spirit per se. (Matt. 16:17.) Jesus is talking about the Law and the Prophets given by the Father—for these “speak of me.” (John 5:46.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, if Jesus says a proper confession arises from the Father’s revelation of who Jesus was in the Law and the Prophets, how can we come to Jesus if we cannot defend the inspiration and validity of the Law and the Prophets? If we did not rely upon such evidence of the prophecies from the Law and the Prophets, how could we possibly convince anyone of Jesus’ messiahship? Without using Biblical proof, we could only convince the emotional, the gullible, and the mentally weak.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Why have we instead created a gospel message that does not depend on reason based on what the Father has revealed about the identity of Jesus? Is it because Paul taught us salvation depends on predestination? That salvation is inherently an irrational experi</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">ence that is given to us supernaturally by the Holy Spirit? (1 Cor. 12:3.) If so, Paul’s teachings are once more a hindrance rather than guidance on what God wants us to understand on how to evangelize.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">If we then agree that proving the Law given Moses as the word of the Father is vital to make someone believe in its prophecies of Messiah, then Pauline Christianity has a real dilemma. How could we possibly convince someone that the Law given Moses is God’s word if we are not following it? How could we do this if we teach we are free to ignore it, and decry anyone who does so as legalistic? Even a nonbeliever is going to know that God does not change. (Mal. 3:6.) Our witness that ignores the Law given Moses is completely contrary to the message Jesus wants us to give. How can we prove to a skeptic that the Messianic prophecies in the Law and Prophets are real when we believe the Law is defunct, a ministration of death, given by angels who are no gods, etc.?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I hate to say this, but it appears Pauline Christianity is a grand illusion. It has asked us Christians to embark on a boat that has put us ashore far away from Christ’s true message. I am not judging individual Christians who largely persevere despite all the false teachings around them. What I am assessing, as God demands all of us to assess, is the teachings of Pauline Christianity against the words of inspired Scripture, in particular the words of Jesus.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">It appears our shepherds are hirelings who have abandoned us to the wolf. For the lucre of a pastorate, they rationalize what cannot be rationalized: the alleged compatibility of Jesus’ message with Paul’s message. Then they saturate us with Paul’s teachings at odds with Jesus. They do this week after week.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">To be truly evangelical, we need to break free from their false teachings, and give people confidence to believe in the Law of Moses, including its wonderful prophecies of Prince Messiah. Then we will be prepared to make converts who can honestly and in a good heart make the confession that Jesus is Messiah, the Son of the Living God. We too then will rejoice, like Jesus did, that no human revealed this, but God the Father did so to them through His Word.</span></p>
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<p id="LinkTarget_419"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">A Love Relationship Defines A Born-Again Person</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Despite such a confession being integral to being a Christian, it is likewise integral that one have love for God. Accepting Jesus as Messiah, Son of God means you accept Him as Your King. That is what these terms synonymously signify.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, a convert is not someone who merely mouths Jesus is Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Because your king commands you love God as the highest command, then there must be a union of faith with love for God. It is like the woman who bathed Jesus feet with her tears. It was both her love and faith, united, that Jesus said caused her sins to be forgiven and for her to be saved. (Luke 7:47; see Jesus Words Only ’s discussion at page 151 et seq.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Thus, it is only the person who approaches God with sincere love who finds Him and is truly born again. This is the “good and noble heart” that when the word is sewn will bear fruit. John explains the truly born-again person is the one who loves God and the flock. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.” (1Jo 4:7)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Whether or not you gain eternal life should not matter. Your love of God is what you should seek for the sake of loving God Himself. Consider Apostle John’s more complete message:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. (1Jo 4:7)</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1Jo 4:8)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. (1Jo 4:15)</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him. (1Jo 4:16) </span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world. (1Jo 4:17)</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.(1Jo 4:18)</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Notice how in verse 15 confession of Jesus (<em>i.e.</em>, He is the Son of God) has a limited meaning in the born-again process. It means Jesus now abides in you. What is the purpose of Jesus abiding in you? Jesus’ prayer after the Last Supper was overheard by the Apostles where Jesus speaks to God-the-Father:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; (John 17:22)</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.(John 17:23)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus is inside of you once you confess Him as King Messiah, Son of the Living God, <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>i.e.</em>, you have transferred authority to Jesus over your life</span></span>. His presence is to perfect you into one body of believers. This unity of believers will serve as proof God sent Jesus.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Do you think 30,000 Protestant denominations proves to nonbelievers that God sent Jesus? Hardly. <strong><em>We confess Jesus but follow Paul in all different directions</em></strong>—some toward no free-will, others toward predestination, others to faith alone, and others to eternal security. The revival of Paulinism 400 years ago has caused incredi</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">ble division within the church.</span><sup style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; line-height: 1.3em;">14</sup><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (I do not mean to suggest that Roman Catholicism is a better alternative merely because it is so monolithic.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">How can Christians develop the unity that Jesus says is a means of evangelism to the world at large? <em><strong>The solution is to rely in the New Testament era upon Only Jesus’ Words as the inspired addition to the prophets that preceded Jesus.</strong></em> If we do this, Jesus promises us that our unity will be a witness to the world that God sent Him. The continued effort to keep Paul’s contradictions of Jesus in our minds, and rationalize dispensations to solve them, will only delay the day of unity that Jesus prayed we should and would enjoy.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Based on Jesus’ prayer, I am confident the lost would come to Jesus en masse if Christians would: (a) learn the validity of the Messianic prophecies from the Law and Prophets; (b) follow the Law given Moses for conscience sake (<em>i.e.</em>, to the extent the Law applies to you either as a Gentile or more broadly as a Jew) as well as to avoid looking hypocritcal when quoting prophecies from the Law; (c) witness to others the message of what those Messianic prophecies say; (d) love God, all those who confess Jesus as Messiah & Son of the Living God, as well as your enemies; and (e) jettison the dead weight that Paul’s unique teachings represent.</span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I am never concerned about the latter step despite how radical it sounds. We never can have anything to fear if we are devoted to following the words of Jesus.</span></p>
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||||
<hr />
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||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">FOOTNOTE 14.Nevertheless, much good has come by the Reformation, and some people have been saved. But not as many as we assume. Look at all the Sinner Prayer formulas, and you will often find missing is any confession that Jesus is Messiah, Son of the Living God. Instead, there is a tautological confession: Jesus, your Son, paid for my sins, and I accept Him as Savior, and I therefore am saved. If Jesus paid for my sins, He is de facto a Savior. But my acknowledging this does not get me anywhere close to intelligently saying I recognize (a) the Hebrew Scriptures identified a Messiah, Son of the Living God and (b) I see Him in Jesus, and confess Jesus as such. Jesus did not ask us to confess He was a Savior. He asked us to confess who He was. Without knowing who He was, in a Sinner’s Prayer you are merely expressing an emotion that Jesus, God’s Son, will save you. That’s not enough.</span></p>
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||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, my experience is that most intelligent<strong> non</strong>-believers who take the time to learn about the NT Scripture resist Christianity because of Paul’s notorious doctrines. There is no hiding the fact Paul says women must keep silent in church—forced to ask their spouse at home their questions. (1 Cor. 14:34-35.) There is no shielding an inquirer from seeing that Paul would not feed a poor person who was not willing to work for it. (2 Thess. 3:10.) Finally, we cannot hide for long Paul’s shameless bragging and boastings. (2 Cor. 11:16-18.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, whatever amazing, brilliant and witty message Jesus provides is unfortunately tarnished by Paul’s repulsive teachings and behavior. The time is now for the Jesus' Words Only principle that Jesus Himself taught to propel Christianity forward.</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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||||
<hr /><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">FOOTNOTES NOT MOVED UP INTO TEXT ABOVE</span></strong>
|
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<p> </p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">1. sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh youa reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear: (1Pe 3:15)(ASV)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">2. Wil Durant, Caesar & Christ (N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1944) Vol. 3 at 557.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">3. Thomas Jefferson, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (Washington: 1904) at 15.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">4. Id., at 13 (Introduction quoting letter to Edward Dowse April 19, 1803.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">5. Id., at 16.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">7. In ancient texts, it says Gog. In the later Masoretic texts, this says Agag. (John Sailhame, “The Messiah and the Hebrew Bible,” JETS (March 2001) 5, 21. Cf. Ezekiel 37:17 et seq. (God will come to battle Gog).</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">8. “The first Jupiter/Venus conjunction of August 12, 3 B.C. in the constellation Cancer is what likely alerted the Magi to look for further signs. They found them in the triple conjunction of Jupiter in Regulus in the constellation Leo. But it was the second conjunction, on June 17, 2 BC, in the evening, of Jupiter and Venus, in the constellation Leo, that started the Magi on their way west.” (Susan S. Carroll, The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomical and Historical Perspective, available online.) The discussion in the text is based on her excellent and extremely detailed study. Incidentally, Carroll provides a plausible explanation of the issue of the date of Herod’s death as it pertains to these issues.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">9. Ernest L. Martin, The Star of Bethlehem: The Star That Astonished The World. (Oregon: ASK Publications, 1996).</span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"> Study Notes</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">After writing this article on July 25, 2010, I found that there is a legitimate question whether Isaiah 9:6 is correctly translated. The Dead Sea Scrolls' multiple versions from 200 BC reveal later manuscripts of the 800 AD era prepared by the Masorete scribes separated parts of a person's name. With this late change, it now reads as attributes rather than as the actual name of a person, leading one to think this is prophesy of a person having these attributes rather than simply having a name with all these essentially hyphenated components, e.g., Mighty-God would just be another component part of his name which is nothing unusual in that era. See our article <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/359-isaiah-96-what-does-it-mean.html">Isaiah 9:6</a> which presents all points of view, and has no decisive outcome at this time. Thus I have removed Isaiah 9:6 as a proof. It was never cited in the gospels as proof either.</span></p>
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<h3>Recommendations</h3>
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<p><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
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<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
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<h1><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Was Paul Deceived by Impostor as Christ Warned In Matthew 24?</span></h1>
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<hr />
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<h1><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Question Presented</span> [<a href="/images/stories/AudioJWO/who_identified_himself_as_Jesus_to_Paul_on_road_to_damascus.mp3"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">MP3 Version</span></a>] -<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/306-que-se-identifico-como-jesus-a-pablo.html"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Spanish</span></a> <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/542-2013-09-22-04-02-38.html"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> Italian</span></a> [in process]</strong></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><hr /></strong></span></h1>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Was Paul deceived by someone in the wilderness saying "I am Jesus" -- coming in "Christ's name" -- implying He was the Messiah-Jesus? Does Paul's experience fit Jesus' warning that we should not believe those coming in the wilderness or privately "in my name" saying "I am the Christ"? Jesus explained that when He appears again on earth every eye from every point "east and west" will see Him, so don't be fooled by an impostor Jesus who appears to someone on earth in a private way or in the wilderness. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024:4-6,%2026-27&version=KJV">Matt. 24 vv. 4-6, vv. 26-27</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But Paul's experience with two companions on the wilderness road to Damascus was such that the two men "heard the voice but saw no one" (<a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/9-7.htm">Acts 9:7</a>.) Isn't this appearance then of one saying he was the Christ fit the warning of an impostor in a private place or wilderness that every eye on earth does not see? </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Isn't this quite plain that anyone can see the problem?</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Yet, unquestionably, Paul's experience fails by the criteria <strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus gave u</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">s</span></strong> by which we would know the true Jesus from an impostor Jesus. The true Jesus would next be only truly seen on earth if he were universally seen. The impostor Jesus would only be seen privately or in the wilderness. Jesus warned that this impostor-Jesus would be so convincing that he could dupe even the 12. Yet, to protect the true 12 Apostles, Jesus gave them these criteria to identify an impostor Jesus: those seeing the impostor could only say he came privately to them or in the wildness; it would not be a universal appearance from eastern to western sky. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul boasted in Galatians 2:6 that the 12 taught him nothing, and instead he relied upon the revelations he received after the Damascus experience. See <a href="/topicindex/436-paul-knew-the-12-taught-another-jesus.html">Paul Acknowledge the 12 Taught A Different Gospel</a>.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Can this explain why Paul did not do the self-examination against what Jesus taught the 12 in Matthew 25 which would have caused him to doubt whom was giving him these revelations? We will do here the exam that Paul, an honest dupe apparently, did not do.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul Defender Unwittingly Indicts Paul's Experience Outside Damascus</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Ironically, a defender of Paul reads this passage in Matthew, and correctly applies its clear terms, but does not realize that it indicts Paul's encounter in the wildnerness outside Damascus. In an article at Bible.info.com entitled <a href="http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/how-can-one-recognize-false-christ">How Can One Recognize a False Christ</a>, we read:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.242em 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.8400001525879px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">He warned, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it’ ” (Matthew 24:23-26, NKJV).</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.242em 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.8400001525879px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000;">Jesus emphasized that these false christs will perform great signs and miracles and deceive many. <em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 24.8400001525879px;"><strong>Many Christians think that as long as they believe in Jesus, they will be shielded from the deceptions of the last days</strong></em>. However, these will <strong>not be crude deceptions</strong> that will be <strong>easy to identify</strong>. Jesus says that the deceptions of these false christs are <strong><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 24.8400001525879px;">so carefully planned and so skillfully carried ou</em></strong><strong>t</strong>, that even God’s chosen ones would be deceived—if that were possible. And the only reason it is not possible <strong>is if we keep our focus on the real Jesus through study of His Word </strong>and through prayer.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.242em 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.8400001525879px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Unfortunately, many will be deceived into following <em><strong>the wrong Jesus</strong></em>.</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">How tragic is the result? The same article puts it well:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Tragically, those who are deceived ... by these false christs will sincerely regard themselves to be <em><strong>genuine believers, actively doing the work of Christ</strong></em>. They will even prophesy in the name of Jesus, cast out demons in the name of Jesus, and work miracles in His name. But they are serving a false Christ—<strong><em>not the real Jesus</em></strong>. “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers’ ” (Matthew 7:22, 23, NIV). The followers of the <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em><strong>false Christ disregard the commandments of Jesus</strong></em></span>. In contrast, Jesus declares, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21, NIV).</span></span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Do these criteria so unwittingly well-explained at Bible.info.com disqualify Paul as an apostle of the same Jesus whom you and I love? Remember, Paul's epistles have not a single unique quote from Jesus (see <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/666-how-many-times-do-episltes-of-paul-uniquely-quote-jesus.html">link</a>), so if we disqualify Paul, we lose nothing from the words of Jesus. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Obviously, Paul talks alot about Jesus, and exhorts us to follow seemingly the same Jesus whom you and I wish to follow. But because Paul in his epistles never quotes Jesus other than the liturgy from Luke's Gospel, is it possible Paul is not following the same Jesus as we hope to follow? </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Perhaps it is time we consider whether an impostor Jesus Christ guided Paul. Is it coincidence that nowadays, most mainstream pastors teach us to follow Paul's Gospel, and disregard as part of a prior dispensation <strong><em>all the commandments from Jesus?</em></strong> </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Dominant dispensationalists do not hide they are abandoning Jesus' lessons in the flesh. They in fact prove dispensationalism is necessary because they admit the numerous contradictions of Jesus by Paul such as Paul saying the Law is abolished but Jesus says it would never be so until heaven and earth pass. (See <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/175-pauls-contradictions-of-jesus.html">Contradictions by Paul of Jesus</a>). Based upon such contradictions, they teach us that we need no longer follow the Jesus who walked the earth, but only the Jesus who revealed himself to Paul. See the article <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/200-paulinism-examples.html">Examples of Paulinism.</a></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, most mainstream pastors teach this contradiction and many more prove Paul is the only apostle to follow in the New Testament. Dispensationalism teaches that Jesus's doctrine was meant solely for a prior dispensation. This dispensational teaching solidified in this century, beginning with Bultmann as his response to the many contradictions he could not refute between Jesus and Paul. See <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/176-bultmann-on-paul.html">Bultmann on Dispensationalism</a>.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But what did the Bible.info page -- pro-Paul no less -- unwittingly say is the hint someone who claims to have heard from Jesus in a private vision or wilderness place did not actually meet the true Jesus? </span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The followers of the false Christ disregard the commandments of Christ....</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What would Bible.info think if they realized there is an entire dominant</span> <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">view in Evangelical Christianity that began around 1910 that we can disregard all the commands of Jesus before the Ascension in favor of a Jesus who appeared to Paul? and who we simply assume speaks the words of an Ascended Jesus? (We faultily make this assumption despite Paul never quoting "Jesus" as the source of Paul's numerous teachings.)</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Wouldn't Bible.info be willing to reconsider the validity of Paul? The price of not doing so has turned out to be the mainstream pastors believe Paul's words alone should dominate in any Sunday sermon.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Question</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So are we judging correctly the weight to give Paul's words? Remember Jesus taught us that "appearances" can be deceiving: "</span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><strong>Stop judging by mere appearances</strong></em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">, but instead judge correctly." (</span><a href="http://biblehub.com/john/7-24.htm" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">John 7:24</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.) As </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A12&version=NIV" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">Proverbs 14:2</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> similarly teaches: "There is a way that </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><em>appears</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> to be right, but in the end it leads to death."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, are we on the path to life or death by trying to follow Paul's words besides those of Jesus delivered pre-Ascension?</span> </span><br /> </p>
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<p><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">An Obvious Question That Is Routinely Overlooked</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This is an obvious question about Paul's encounter, given the clear import of the words of Jesus. Even commentators summarize the clear meaning of Jesus in a way that one must wonder how commentators' minds never questioned whether Jesus' warning might apply to Paul. </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For example, </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Henry Alford (1810-1871), D.D., Dean of Canterbury (see bio at this </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><a href="http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/A/ALF/henry-alford.html" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">link</a></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">)</span>, in his </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; color: #494a44; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The New Testament for English Readers</span> </em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(Rivingtons 1868) at </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&pg=PA162#v=onepage&q=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&f=false" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; line-height: 1.3em;">page 162</a> </em>commented on Matthew 24 verses 4-5:</span></span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">[vv. 4-5] 'For many' ...This was the first danger awaiting them: not of being drawn away from Christ, but of <strong><em>imagining that these persons were Himself</em></strong>." [Emphasis in original.] </span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&pg=PA162&ci=552%2C653%2C403%2C79&source=bookclip" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;"><img src="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA162&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U2QvUuE478O6Dsabmnr7xoYDWNCfw&ci=552,653,403,79&edge=0" style="float: right;" width="232" height="46" /></a></span></p>
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<p> </p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Alford then explains the reference to "in my Name" means the false Jesuses say they are Jesus as "the ground for their pretences."</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Alford did not address the clear import of what he was saying as applying to Paul's encounter. It involved Paul claiming an appearance of the risen Christ to himself, making himself a <em><strong>witness</strong> </em>to the Resurrection along with two men with Paul who hear the voice saying "I am Jesus" (Acts 9:7). </span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul in fact later testifies in court that Ananias, a devout man and well-regarded person (not a prophet) told him at Damascus a short while after Paul's experience outside Damascus that the "Holy One has chosen thee ... for thou shalt be his <em><strong>witness</strong> </em>to all men of what you have <em><strong>seen and heard</strong></em>." (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+22%3A12-15&version=KJV">Acts 22:15</a>.) (Please note Ananias did not claim God told him this at all; Ananias just affirmed it.)</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is clear Paul claims, and Ananias understood the same, that Paul saw and heard the Lord Jesus outside of Damascus. And so too his companions had a shared sensory experience of either seeing or hearing this "Jesus."</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But what Alford never applied to Paul's experience, we will do so here. </span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Alford's Further Proper Summary of Matthew 24</span></span></span></strong></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Alford then discusses the warning in Matthew 24: 24-27 as about someone coming in the wilderness saying he is Jesus. </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&pg=PA166&ci=530%2C1250%2C378%2C93&source=bookclip" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;"><img src="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA166&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1c9a_eNacbWoYuK6zQlYo3SWlFWQ&ci=530,1250,378,93&edge=0" width="218" height="53" style="border-style: none; float: right;" /></a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Alford explains that Jesus said this to "guard them against the<em><strong> impostors</strong></em> who led people out into <em><strong>the wilderness</strong></em> (see <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2021:38&version=KJV">Acts 21:38</a>) or invited them to consult privately...." </span><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;">Id.</em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">, at </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&pg=PA166#v=onepage&q=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&f=false" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;">168</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. More precisely, Jesus said the appearance to be warned about was in the wilderness. Thus, even though Alford did not address whether this "impostor" scenario out in the wilderness applies to Paul's encounter in the same book of Acts where Alford saw a parallel (<em>i.e.</em>, an Egyptian led people into the wilderness), we will examine the Paul-parallel here.</span></span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Finally, Alford says the fact Jesus' next appearance on earth would instead be seen like "lightning" <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&pg=PA167&ci=60%2C498%2C401%2C266&source=bookclip"><img src="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA167&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U3-76j3rQ9tNJvqa_D1lGrvrSaZ1Q&ci=60%2C498%2C401%2C266&edge=0" style="float: right;" /></a> from east to west, and not privately or in the wilderness, meant it "shall be a plain <em><strong>unmistakeable fact</strong></em>, understood of all, ...sudden and all pervading." Furthermore, because the lightning is from "<em><strong>both ends of heaven at once</strong></em>," Alford says this is like Rev. 1:7 which says at Christ's return "every eye will see him." <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>Id.</em>, at page <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5mFCAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&pg=PA167#v=onepage&q=The%20New%20Testament%20for%20English%20Readers%20Matthew%20Commentary%20alford&f=false">168</a>. The stress is on the "universality" of this event as the discriminating factor between an impostor Jesus and the true Jesus. </span></span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So, again, likewise, we will apply this final criteria to the experience of Paul where he sees a light and hears a voice saying "I am Jesus" but this event is neither unmistakeable nor universal, but instead is in the wilderness and private. We will ask the question that no reputable commentator has asked even though it appears painfully obvious.</span></span></span></p>
|
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<p> </p>
|
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<hr />
|
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<h1><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Nature of Christ's Return Expected Prior To Paul's Experience</span></strong></span></h1>
|
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<h1><strong><hr /></strong></h1>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%201:9-11&version=KJV">Acts 1: 9-11</a>, the resurrected Jesus was "taken up into the sky while" the apostles were watching. An angel clearly explained to the twelve "just as you saw him go, he will return." Jesus had a physical departure. So the angel promised a physical return. Jesus spoke of this return: "they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%2024:30-35&version=KJV" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">Matt. 24: 30</a>. John refers to the same event as "every eye will see him." John wrote of a vision of the return of Christ: "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him." <a href="http://biblehub.com/revelation/1-7.htm">Rev. 1: 7</a> (NIV.)</span></p>
|
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<hr />
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Jesus' Prophetic Warning</strong></span></p>
|
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<hr />
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus was asked about His Second Coming by his apostles. In reply, He warned them that prior to His return an impostor or impostors will come in His name saying "I am Jesus." Then Jesus said if anyone comes claiming to be Himself in the "wilderness" or a "private place," you know that this is not the true Jesus because this is not universally seen: </span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%2024:5-6&version=KJV">Matt. 24: 5</a>)</span></p>
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">23 </sup>Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not.</span></p>
|
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">24 </sup>For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">25 </sup>Behold, I have told you beforehand.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">26 </sup>If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the <em><strong>wilderness;</strong></em> go not forth: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">27 </sup>For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%2024:23-27&version=ASV">Matt. 24 : 23-27 ASV.</a>) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus is telling us that when He returns to earth it will be clear and unmistakable to everyone. We are thus not to believe any other accounts of people who claim to have seen the Christ-Jesus prior to such a universally-visible event. Even if the event is accompanied by signs and wonders. Thus, any private appearances we know must represent an impostor Jesus.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus elsewhere calls this impostor a "thief." This impostor will try to steal the hearts of true Christians. As Jesus said elsewhere, "the thief comes only to <em><strong>steal</strong></em>, and kill and destroy." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2010:10&version=ESV">John 10:10</a> ESV.) What better way to steal Christians than by deceiving those who are attracted already by the figure of Jesus by giving them a counterfeit version? </span></span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, Jesus' warning in Matthew chapter 24 is the most important defense to prevent us from becoming dupes of the message from any impostor Jesus.</span></span></p>
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<p> </p>
|
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul's Encounter Outside Damascus</span></strong></span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Several years after Jesus ascended, Saul of Tarsus -- also known as Paul -- was walking with two companions on a road outide Damascus. Just previously, Paul was involved in the murder of Stephen, and was uttering "murderous threats" upon Christians. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%209:1&version=NIV">Acts 9: 1</a>.) Paul confessed at that time he was a "blasphemer and violent man." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20timothy%201:13&version=NIV">1 Tim. 1:13</a>.) Paul was thus a lawless man as he walked to Damascus -- a man whom God says He will not listen to his prayers absent repentance: "<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an </span><i style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify; background-color: #fdfeff;"></i><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">abomination." (<a href="http://biblehub.com/proverbs/28-9.htm">Prov. 28:9, KJV</a>.)</span></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><br /></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In this spiritual state, Paul then saw a great light and heard a voice which said to him: "I am Jesus," "why are you persecuting me?" Acts </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%209:3-7&version=NIV" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">9:3-7</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. However, those with Paul "</span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"><em>saw no one</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">" although they "heard the voice." </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+9%3A7&version=NASB" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">Acts 9:7</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. In another version, his companions "saw the light" but did not "hear" (or some say "understand") the voice. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+22%3A9&version=KJV">Acts 22:9</a>. This certainly appears to be an extra-mental experience of Paul, and not a mere vision, as it was shared with 2 or more others. In fact, the presence of at least the 2 other persons suggests Paul intended to convey to us that a physical experience on earth was being verified by at least 2 witnesses.</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul elsewhere describes this as a<em><strong> physical appearance</strong></em> of Jesus to himself in the same sense Jesus appeared to the twelve apostles first: "He <strong><em>appeared</em></strong> to Cephas [<em>i.e.</em>, Peter], then the twelve...and he also<em><strong> appeared</strong> </em>to me." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15%3A5-8&version=NIV">1 Cor. 15:5 & 8</a>.) Paul was not claiming he saw Jesus merely in a dream or vision. Paul wanted us to understand Jesus was as physically present on the Road outside Damascus as Jesus was present in the resurrection encounters with the twelve where Jesus told Thomas to feel the nail holes.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, most certainly Paul claimed a true experience that could be shared with others where Jesus post-Ascension returned physically to earth to speak and appear to Paul. In fact, Paul describes it as a presence of Jesus in that wilderness in a resurrected state which made Paul a witness to a post-Ascension return that showed Jesus in a true "resurrected" state. This is how Paul counted himself among those who could be a witness to the physical resurrection of Jesus rather than claiming he had a vision of a deceased in heaven.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><img src="http://rodiagnusdei.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/bible_places_rivers_of_damascus.jpg?w=535" /></p>
|
||||
<p>[Damascus at the time of Paul with surrounding wilderness. Philip Schaff & Miss E. Rodgers, <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Damascus</span>.]</p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Paulinists Concede Paul's Encounter Was In The Wilderness</span><hr /></span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In Acts 9: 3, Luke relates that Paul was outside Damascus when this event happened. The KJV says Paul "came near Damascus" (KJV). The pertinent Greek word is <em>engizein</em>, meaning "draw near." Thus, Paul was unquestionably <strong><em>outside</em></strong> Damascus when he had his encounter with the light and voice wh</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">ich said "I am Jesus." See</span><a href="http://bible.cc/acts/9-3.htm" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"> Biblios versions for Acts 9: 3</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. Yet, to repeat, the two companions "hearing the voice, <em><strong>saw no one</strong></em>." <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%209:7&version=KJV">Acts 9:7</a>.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As a result of this event having taken place outside Damascus, this area is thereby within a <strong>wilderness </strong>as that term is used in the Bible. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Why is this important? Because Jesus specifically commanded that we, his followers, were not to listen to anyone who appeared in the wilderness who claimed to be Jesus. Our Lord explained He will not appear on earth again<em><strong> until an event when every eye sees Him</strong></em> from eastern to western sky. These criteria are how we know today that the person who met Paul was not the true Jesus. This was the litmus test Jesus gave his disciples: 'if someone appears in the wilderness claiming to be me, you can be sure it is not me,' in effect. See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%2024&version=NIV">Matt. 24: 5 & 6; & 27-29</a>. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">While I do not doubt Paul believed he met the true Jesus, it does not matter at this point. Rather, the facts described in Acts clearly exclude the possibility that Paul had an encounter with the true Jesus found in the gospels, as we will now further elaborate upon.</span></p>
|
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<hr />
|
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<p><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Biblical Meaning of "Wilderness"</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Satan was known to occupy wilderness areas. This is why Jesus Himself went to the wilderness -- so he could be tested by Satan. "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit<em><strong> into the wilderness</strong></em> to be tested by the devil." (Matt. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A1-11&version=NIV">4:1</a>.) Jesus identifies in verse 10 that His encounter was with "Satan" himself.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The word "wilderness" as used in the Bible means any area outside a city. Gill in his <em><a href="http://bible.cc/2_corinthians/11-26.htm">Exposition of the Bible</a></em> explains the term "wilderness" as Paul used it in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%2011:26&version=KJV">2 Cor.11: 26</a>. The term "may be understood not strictly of desert places, but of the <strong><em>country </em></strong>in distinction from the city."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Christian scholars <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Hengel">Hengel</a> & Schwemer refer to Paul's experience as taking place in the "<em><strong>semi-wilderness</strong></em> of the great city territory immediately bordering on the city of <em>Damascus</em>." (Martin Hengel, Anna Maria Schwemer,<em> Paul Between Damascus and Antioch: The Unknown Years </em>(1997) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=PRIKVslqctkC&lpg=PA109&ots=GFlmkIGYWM&dq=paul%20wilderness%20damascus&pg=PA109#v=onepage&q=paul%20wilderness%20damascus&f=false">109</a>.)</span></p>
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<p class="BodyAfterHead"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Next, besides "outside Damascus" as being equivalent to a wilderness, there is one time in the Bible this very same area is described as a "wilderness" -- in 1 Kings 19:15, as discussed next. </span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Elijah Told To Take Wildnerness Road to Damascus</span></strong></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20kings%2019:15&version=KJV">1 Kings 19:15</a>, God speaks to Elijah while Elijah is at "Horeb, the mountain of God." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2019:7&version=NIV">1 Kings 19:7</a>.) God tells Elijah to take the road to Damascus. God specifically calls this the "wilderness."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This passage reads:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">15 </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then Yahweh said to him, “Go, return on <em><strong>your way to the wilderness of Damascus</strong></em>. Go and anoint Hazael as king over Aram; (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2019:15&version=LEB">1 Kings 19:15 Lexham</a>.)</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Some scholars suggest Paul thought this was significant. Paul may have equated the call Paul received on that Wilderness Road to Damascus to the call Elijah received at Horeb to take that same Road to Damascus. See N.T. Wright, "PAUL, ARABIA, AND ELIJAH (GALATIANS 1:17)," in </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">Journal of Biblical Literature</em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> vol. 115, 683–692 (available at this </span><a href="http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Paul_Arabia_Elijah.pdf" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">online link</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.)</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, Elijah received his call at Horeb at the Mountain of God while Paul's encounter was itself on that wilderness Road to Damascus. That is a difference that in God's planning can be very significant.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Now the contention of Wright is important in a way he did not intend. What he admitted proves that <em><strong>God placed in the Bible a clear reference that Paul's encounter was in a location which</strong></em> the Bible called<em><strong> </strong></em>the "<strong>wilderness of Damascus.</strong>" This way, there would be no doubt in anyone's mind once we recognized the issue from Matthew chapter 24 that the same is true for Paul. Hence, this road to Damascus where Paul heard "I am Jesus" from the voice and light was indeed in the wilderness. God personally said so!</span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #0000ff;"><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">Paul Was Certainly Lost At the Moment of This Appearance of "Jesus."</strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul could be duped at the point of the appearance of "Jesus" outside Damascus because Paul was certainly a lost soul at that point. Jesus warned us that the signs and wonders of an imposter Christ would be so "great" that it could dupe even a believer if that were possible. (<a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/24-24.htm">Matt 24:24</a>.) How much more so would a lost soul be helpless against the great signs and wonders of an imposter Jesus.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Was Paul a lost soul when he walked that road to Damascus and met someone saying "I am Jesus?"</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Luke tells us that just prior to this event Paul was involved in the murder of Stephen, and was breathing "murderous threats." (</span><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/9-1.htm" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">Acts 9:1</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.) Apostle John tells us no murderer has eternal life. (</span><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_john/3-15.htm" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">1 John 3:15</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Finally, on that wilderness road, Paul was still in the midst of a mission of persecution. Paul later explained what his persecution efforts often entailed. </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> Paul in</span><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/26-11.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;"> <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Acts 26:11</span></a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> testifies in Court about his life as a persecutor as follows:</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and<strong> compelled </strong><strong><i style="font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">them</i></strong><strong> to blaspheme</strong>; and being <em><strong>exceedingly mad</strong></em> against them, I persecuted <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">them</span> even unto strange cities. KJV.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul obviously made Christians say Jesus did his miracles by the power of Bezelbub, a demon. Jesus said such a statement insults / blasphemes the Holy Spirit, and is thus blasphemy of Yahweh....an unpardonable sin. See Matt 12:38. The Pharisees made this claim about Jesus' miracles, and evidently Paul followed the party-line.</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul acknowledged the obvious implication of such coercions on Christians: the one forcing another to blaspheme as a means of persecution must admit as Paul did in </span><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_timothy/1-13.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; line-height: 21px; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">1 Timothy 1:13</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> that he was "once a blasphemer."</span> </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">An admission of blasphemy would ordinarily signify that one has violated the Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7) - the prohibition on blasphemy of God's name. This is the one sin that one could never obtain justification under the Law given Moses -- known among Jews and by Jesus as the unpardonable sin. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For while Exodus 20:6 says God's "mercy" extends to all "who love him and obey my commandments," then God in Exodus 20:7 says there is an exception -- a sin God "will not hold guiltless" anyone from -- the sin of blasphemy of God's name. A sin for which there is no "mercy" -- the unpardonable sin -- under the Law.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Dennis Praeger, </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> Jewish scholar, in his new book, </span><em style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify; background-color: #fdfeff;">The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code</em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> (Regnery: 2015) explains blasphemy against God is unforgiveable, according to God.</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">So then what is the worst sin? The worst sin is [violating]... the Third Commandment of the Ten Commandments. This is the only one of the Ten Commandments that states that <strong>God will not forgive who violates the commandment</strong>. What does this commandment say? </span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is most commonly translated as, 'Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold guiltless' --<strong> meaning 'will not forgive</strong>,' -- whoever takes his name in vain. (Prager, <em>The Ten Commandments</em> (2015) at pages 20-21.</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus says likewise when Jesus restates the Third Commandment in <a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/3-29.htm">Mark 3:29</a>: "but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"> never has forgiveness</span></strong>, but is subject to <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">eternal condemnation.</span></strong>" </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(The term "Holy Spirit" is a common replacement for Yahweh when verses like Exodus 20:7 are being quoted in the NT and use Yahweh's name. Jesus often has similar replacements, e.g. "Spirit of the Lord" for "Spirit of Yahweh" in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204:17-21">Luke 4:17:21</a>; "Mighty One" in <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/26-64.htm">Matt 26:64</a>; etc.)</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, please note that Paul contradicts Jesus and claims in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2013:39">Acts 13:39</a> that "<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">everyone who believes is justified from </span><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;"><strong>all</strong> </em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">things from which you</span><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;"><strong> could not be justified by the law of Moses."</strong></em><strong> What sin(s) could one not be justified by the Law? </strong>The only sin under the Law for which one could never receive justification was blasphemy in Exodus 20:7. But Jesus says it is unpardonable, and there is "never...forgiveness." But Paul says contrarily that faith can even give you justification for a sin which one could "not receive justification by the Law" (Acts 13:19). In fact, Paul claimed in <a href="http://biblehub.com/1_timothy/1-13.htm">1 Tim. 1:13</a> he already has been justified of blasphemy: "Even though I was <em><strong>once a blasphemer,</strong></em> and a persecutor and a violent man I was shown <em><strong>mercy</strong></em>....." Yet, both Jesus in Mark 3:29 and God-Yahweh in Exodus 20:7 says it is not possible. </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, at the very moment that counts, Paul must have been a lost man, easily capable of being duped by a false Christ claiming to be "Jesus." Paul was not among the believers at that time. Jesus told us Paul's chances to avoid being duped were slim to none. Jesus said the effort of an imposter Jesus to dupe someone would be virtually impossible for anyone but a believer not to be fooled:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform <span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect</strong></span>. (<a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/24-24.htm">Matt 24:24 Bible Hub - NIV</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Satan Can Even Dupe Prophets of God!</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Even if Paul prior to encountering this "light" and "voice" had the Holy Spirit already (which Luke does not imply and is unlikely for reasons just stated), Paul would</span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; color: #494a44; line-height: 20px;"><em> not be immune from the wiles of Satan</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. David, who had such Holy Spirit, was not above Satan planting ideas in his head:</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Now <strong><em>Satan</em></strong>, designing evil against Israel, <strong><em>put into David's mind </em></strong>the impulse to take the number of Israel. (1 Chron. <a href="http://bible.cc/1_chronicles/21-1.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">21:1</a>.)</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Furthermore, in 1 Kings 1:13-32, God tells us that <strong><em>a true prophet duped</em> </strong>another <em><strong>true but young prophet by lying to him</strong></em> about a prophecy supposedly being from God. The true prophet lied that God had said that the young prophet could go home by another route. (See <a href="/JWO/false-prophecy-deceived-young-prophet.html" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">our article</a>.) Thus, if even a true immature prophet can be duped, so much more can a lost man as was Paul.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, Paul, whether you think he did or did not have the Holy Spirit at his encounter, could be fooled. </span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus's Prophecies About An impostor-Jesus</span></strong></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Of course, Jesus warned repeatedly about false prophets to come<strong><em> in His name</em></strong> who would "<b>have signs and wonders</b>" so that they could deceive even the elect. Matthew 7:15-23; 24:11,24; Mark 13:22-23. See Study Notes below.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But Jesus did more than that. In Matthew 24:<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt.%2024:4-5&version=ASV">4-5</a>, Jesus gives a series of warnings of events that must precede the end. The very first one in church history--and chronologically far earlier than events that would take a long time, such as wars, etc, Jesus says this will happen:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray.</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>5</sup> For many shall come <strong><em>in my name</em></strong>, saying, <em><strong>I am the Christ</strong></em>; and shall lead many astray. (NIV)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In Luke, Jesus warns this one coming in "<strong><em>my name</em></strong>" says "<strong><em>I am He</em></strong>...." (<a href="http://bible.cc/luke/21-8.htm">Luke 21:8</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In Matthew </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024:24-27&version=ASV" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">24:24-27</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">, Jesus warns about just such an earthly encounter one may have with one coming in His Name (Jesus) claiming to be He (Jesus) but you know it is not Him because when Jesus returns, every eye will see Him. Jesus said:</span></span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>24</sup> For there shall arise <em>false Christs</em>, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>25</sup> Behold, I have told you beforehand.</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>26</sup> If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold,<em><strong> he is in the wilderness; go not forth</strong></em>: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not.</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>27</sup> For<strong><em> as the lightning [Greek, astraphe] cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming [parousia = presence] of the Son of man.</em></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus is recorded similarly in<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17%3A24&version=ESV"> Luke 17:24</a> (ESV): "For <strong><em>as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other</em></strong>, so will the Son of Man be <sup></sup>in his day."</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Apostle John in Revelation foresees this same event, and similarly speaks of it: "Look, he is coming with the <strong><em>clouds</em></strong>, and <strong><em>every eye will see him</em></strong>...." (<a href="http://bible.cc/revelation/1-7.htm">Rev. 1:7</a>.) Jesus identifies what the true coming (parousia) event looks like in the immediately following verses 28-30, especially v. 30 in Matthew 24. It is<em><strong> identical</strong></em> to Revelation 1:7:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup> </sup>“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth<sup>[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NIV#fen-NIV-23988c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</sup> will mourn<sup></sup> when they see the Son of Man coming on the <strong><em>clouds</em></strong> of heaven,<sup></sup> with power and great glory.<sup>[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NIV#fen-NIV-23988d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]</sup></span></span> (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NIV">Matt 24:30</a> NIV.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, Jesus says in the context of Matthew 24's prophecy against wilderness encounters that you know it is not Jesus because His coming on the "clouds" of glory will be "from eastern to western sky." Apostle John in Rev. 1:7 says of this same "coming with the clouds" that it is an event which "every eye will see him." (Modern television coverage makes such an event possible even without God using the miraculous to do so.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Clearly, the discerning quality of whether an encounter like Paul's was valid is whether every one on earth simultaneously saw Jesus on the clouds of glory before He arrived on earth. That did not happen in Paul's earthly encounter. Paul's two companions in Acts 9 hear the voice but see no one.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Also further confirming the universality of seeing Jesus as necessary, be aware "east" and "west" in Matthew 24:27 is plural in the Greek, implying a world-wide event. That is, the lightning must flash from every point east or west on the earth so that every eye on earth will see it. Origen in the 200s noted these plurals of <em>east</em> and <em>west</em> signified a world-wide event. Scholars concur that this language "from east to west" bespeaks the "universaility" of the event. (Allan J. McNicol, <em>Jesus' Directions for the Future</em> (Mercer Press, 1996) at page <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=YHr5iaT4AYMC&lpg=PA87&dq=lightning%20from%20east%20to%20west%20paul&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=lightning%20from%20east%20to%20west%20paul&f=false">87</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus the Matthean passage clearly implies to beware someone in a wilderness or private room who will claim not only to be Messiah / Christ, but also to be Jesus. For Jesus says you know it is not Himself by the very obscurity of the location it takes place. "Every eye" will see Jesus on clouds of brilliant glory-light which will extend from one end of heaven to the other over the entire earth when He returns to communicate directly with men on earth. This appearance by one claiming to be Jesus and Messiah whom Paul met in in a wilderness and private encounter is false if only one or at most three men see Him, our Lord implicitly says.</span></p>
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<hr />
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> <strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Why Paul Did Not Realize His Error</span></strong></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul never realized that he met the wrong Jesus. Why? Because the impostor Jesus told him that when the true Jesus returns, <strong><em>not every eye will actually see Jesus. </em></strong> Paul tells us -- in obvious reliance upon the impostor -- that instead only the spiritually discerning will realize Christ returned and 'see' Christ in a spiritual sense. These verses from Paul that negate the visual-universality of Jesus's appearance on the clouds of glory are credulously explained by Herbert Lockyer in <em>All the Parables of the Bible Explained</em> (Zondervan: 1988) at page <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4ncUVL4h2LsC&lpg=PA236&dq=lightning%20from%20east%20to%20west%20paul&pg=PA236#v=onepage&q=lightning%20from%20east%20to%20west%20paul&f=false">255</a>:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"'Every eye shall see Him.' His return for His church, however, as indicated by Paul will likewise be sudden <strong><em>but not universally discerned</em></strong>. He will<strong><em> appear for those who look for Him</em></strong>, and who love such an appearing." [Alluding to 2 Tim. 4: 8, love appearing; 1 Thess. 4:17, 5:23, rapture into the clouds; 1 Thess. 2:9 even says we are with Jesus at His parousia, thus preceding the event, precluding us from first seeing Jesus' presence on earth. See also 1 Thess. 3:13]</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">At the same time, Paul said he declined to listen to the twelve apostles, preferring instead his direct revelations from the Lord Jesus whom he met during that first experience. In <a href="http://biblehub.com/galatians/1-12.htm">Galatians 1:12</a>, Paul explained: "I did<em><strong><span style="color: #000000;"> not receive it from any man,</span></strong></em> nor was I taught it; rather, I received it<em><strong> by revelation from Jesus Christ</strong></em>." In Galatians 2:6, talking expressly of the <em><strong>twelve apostles</strong></em>, Paul says:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But from <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">those who were reputed to be somewhat</span></strong> (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth not man's person)-- they, I say, who were of repute <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">imparted nothing to me</span></strong>: (<a href="http://biblehub.com/galatians/2-6.htm">Galatians 2:6</a> ASV.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul thus was helpless against the Jesus of his revelation. Paul did not have the criteria of the true Jesus' words on how to test the encounter which Paul had with the "Jesus" of the wilderness. Paul refused to hear them, or ask their spiritual input on whether his experience matched the Jesus' they all knew.</span></p>
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<p><span id="en-KJV-23432" class="text Matt-10-14" style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul thereby mistakenly accepted an impostor Jesus whom the true Jesus intended Paul to reject. Sadly, it is Paul's own fault for he boasted that those in repute -- the true twelve -- "imparted nothing to me." Paul preferred the "revelation from Jesus Christ" -- the Jesus of that very first encounter -- the clear impostor. Paul will have to bear the consequences of that flagrant rejection of any words from Jesus that the 12 could have shared with Paul. For Jesus told the 12 (including Matthias who was present and later replaced Judas, according to Acts ch. 1) what are the consequences to Paul for Paul's admission he refused to learn anything from the 12 about the true Jesus: <br /></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><span id="en-KJV-23432" class="text Matt-10-14" style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">14 And whosoever shall not receive you, <span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>nor hear your words</strong></span>, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><span id="en-KJV-23433" class="text Matt-10-15" style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span id="en-KJV-23433" class="text Matt-10-15" style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">15 </span>Verily I say unto you, It shall be<span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><span id="en-KJV-23433" class="text Matt-10-15" style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city</span></strong></span>. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2010&version=KJV">Matt 10:14-15 KJV</a>)</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><span class="text Matt-10-15"> </span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">John's Experience in Heaven Differs From Paul's Encounter Outside Damascus</span></strong></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus's warning does not extend to the experience John described in Revelation. </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">First, John in Revelation 1 and 22 identifies that an "angel"is whom He meets initially, and through whom all the visions of Jesus and communications with Jesus take place. See "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/694-then-angel-of-the-book-of-revelation.html">Angel of Revelation.</a>"</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Second, when John says he actually sees Jesus it is afer Apostle </span></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">John says that he was taken up into heaven where he saw Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rev%204:1&version=NIV">Rev. 4:1</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rev%2021:10-27&version=NIV">Rev. 21:1-27</a>; cf. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rev%201:10-18&version=NIV">1:10-18</a>. </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This can be compared with Elijah who was caught up into heaven, taken up in a whirlwind; and who never tasted death, per <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+2%3A1-12&version=NIV">2 Kings 2:1-12</a>. Prior to that rapture into heaven, the angel revealed a fantastical Jesus with a sword in His mouth -- a fantastic vision which is not intended to be received as a true appearance of Jesus physically manifested on earth.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence,because John's vision of Jesus in Revelation 1 prior to that time was relayed through an angel (Rev. 1:1), and was not intended to convey Jesus physically present on earth visible in any way other than by means of this angel solely to John, it has no parallel to Paul's Damascus experience. In chapter one, Jesus was seen in a fantastic vision with a sword in His mouth. Thus, the first time John sees Jesus physically is only after John is taken into heaven in chapter 4 of Revelation, and then sees Jesus as He actually is - seated at the right hand of the Father.</span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"> <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus' Warning Was Aimed To Prevent An Impostor-Jesus</span></span></span></strong></p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Christian commentators -- unaware how this operates to invalidate Paul -- admit that Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 intended to protect us from a counterfeit Jesus:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The reason He constantly talks about returning in the clouds is because He wants us to look up into Heaven in anticipation of His return, so keep your eyes on Him. <strong><em>He told us to be ready, to watch for His return!</em> </strong>This also <strong><em>prevents us from believing in those who claim to be Jesus Christ</em></strong>, since we are told that He will come in the clouds and every eye will see Him when He comes back. (Frank Gonzalez, <a href="http://www.revelationofthechrist.com/JESUS%20TELLS%20JOHN%20TO%20WRITE%20PG-11.pdf"> Jesus Tells John to Write (2009)(PDF) at 11</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, Gonzalez concedes Jesus admonished us in chapter 24 not to accept anyone who says he is Jesus Christ in an encounter on earth unless every eye sees the same event. Otherwise, it is not the true Jesus. It is an impostor.</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.3em;">Review of the Proofs: This Was A Prophecy About Paul</strong></span></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then, let's ask: does the foregoing prove Jesus was warning us away from whatever person spoke to Paul saying "I am Jesus, the one you persecute"?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The proof above shows indeed Jesus did so warn us. There are several important reasons.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">First, what Paul experienced fits someone coming<em><strong> in the name</strong></em> of Jesus. Paul records the voice said: "I am Jesus." Jesus said many false Christs would come "in my name." (Matt 24:5-7.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Second, we should remember that Jesus was a common name at this time. -- in fact, the third most popular name used among males. The 'voice' distinguished itself from any other Jesus, and claimed to be Jesus the Messiah / Christ with the words that he was "the one you persecute." This fit Jesus' warning that those coming "in my name" (Jesus) would also claim to be the Christ. Also, Paul repeatedly claims the Jesus he follows is "Jesus Christ." Gal. 1:12.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Third, Jesus says in Matthew 24:24-27 that some will try to deceive us while confirming that "Jesus is the Christ" in scenarios such as in the wilderness and private rooms. As already stated, it is in the wilderness that Paul had his experience. Jesus obviously used such a term of "wilderness" as a means to more readily help the true flock identify the falsity of the Jesus whom Paul met.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Fourth, the false Jesus would be accompanied by "signs and wonders" (Matt 24:24), but do not let our judgment be clouded by such experience. It is a false Jesus. Paul obviously understood his blindness as a sign that this was the true Jesus, even though God never imposes blindness on someone who supposedly has been converted already.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, Paul's experience precisely fits Matthew 24:5-7, 24-27's warning not to believe someone coming in His name claiming to be Christ in such a setting when the only validation comes from signs and wonders.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But Didn't Paul Cast Out Demons in Jesus' Name?</span></strong></span></p>
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<h3><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></span></strong></span></h3>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Some have written me saying it is impossible that Paul did not know the true Christ because Paul cast out demons in Jesus' name. </span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is true Paul did so. In Acts 16:18, we read: </span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the <em><strong>name of Jesus Christ</strong></em> to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, Matthew 7:21-23 informs us this does not prove Paul knew the true Jesus.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There Jesus teaches us about those who "prophesy <em><strong>by the name</strong></em> [of Jesus]," and who can "cast out demons <em><strong>by the name</strong></em> [of Jesus]," but whom Jesus will say "I<strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> never knew</span></strong> you." </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Why? Because they are workers of ANOMIA. This word ANOMIA is a Greek word that can mean either "lawlessness" or "<a href="http://greekconcordance.blogspot.com/2008/02/iniquity.html">negation of the Mosaic Law</a>." (Torah is NOMOS in Greek; the prefix "A" means <em>negation</em>, like 'anti' in English.) Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>21</sup> Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven.</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>22</sup> Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by <strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">thy name cast out demons</span></strong>, and by thy name do many mighty works?</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><sup>23</sup> And then will I profess unto them, <em><strong>I never knew you</strong></em>: depart from me, ye that work <strong>ANOMIA</strong> -- either "iniquity" or "negation of the Law of Moses."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Can Paul be said to "do iniquity"? Or did Paul "negate the Mosaic law"? </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">On multiple scores, both meanings of ANOMIA are satisfied. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">First, Paul repeatedly contradicts the Law in letter and spirit. For example, Paul goes so far as to claim that meat sacrificed to idols is ok to eat. But Jesus reasserts the Law's prohibition three times on such meat in the Book of Revelation. Another example is that Paul teaches us to not be charitable to all widows as a class, and instead Paul arbitrarily prohibited charity to widows under sixty. This contradicts God's Law to aid widows without any age-restriction. (See our article <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/318-pauls-command-not-to-help-young-widows.html">Paul's Command Not To Help Widows</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul works also against the clarifications of the Law Jesus gave us. For example, Paul tells his followers to regard himself as their "spiritual father" when Jesus said this was wrong. Jesus meant it was idolatrous to revere someone as a spiritual father -- like Jews were then revering "Father Abraham" -- instead of God - the true spiritual Father of all. On this, and many other contradictions of Jesus, see our article <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/175-pauls-contradictions-of-jesus.html">Paul's Contradictions of Jesus</a>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Second, Paul also teaches that the Law given Moses has been done away with when Jesus said that it would not end until the "heaven and earth pass away." (See <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/106-chapter-five-jwo.html">Chapter Five of JWO</a>.) It is hard to imagine any greater working of iniquity than for someone to declare God's Law is terminated before its appointed time when the "heaven and earth pass away." </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Alternatively, Paul's ANOMIA exists also in his behavior. For example, Paul numerous times utters blasphemies. Blasphemy is a sin even if one lacked the intention to insult God. The Pharisees did not mean to insult God when Jesus told them that their ascribing His miracles to Satan was an insult upon God - an unpardonable one at that. (Matt 12: 31-32.) Thus, an unwitting insult still has eternal consequences. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">These insults on God by Paul include Paul's claims: 1. that only through God's Law did Paul learn to sin -- its prohibitions arousing in him the desire to sin which otherwise did not exist (<a href="http://bible.cc/romans/7-7.htm" style="color: #517291; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 20px;">Romans 7:7</a>); 2. that <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">God will send a "delusion" on all people to believe a lie so they are damned </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Thessalonians+2%3A10-13&version=KJ21" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">2 Thess. 2:10-13</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">); 3. that <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus's brightness at His coming will be "according to the working of Satan," with "all power, signs and delusions" </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Thessalonians+2&version=KJ21" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">2 Thess 2:8-9</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">) -- to accomplish the delusions God will bring which are spoken about in the next verses 10-13 identified in #2 above; 4. that <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">God does not live in temples made of human hands, implying inadvertently that the God in the Temple at Jerusalem which still stood at that time was as invalid a god as a pagan god </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2017:24&version=NIV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 20px;">Acts 17:24</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">); and on and on it goes. See our article <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/188-blasphemy-a-paul.html">Paul & Blasphemy</a> for a long list.<br /></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, when people cite that Paul cast out demons in Jesus' name, </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"><em>Jesus already told us in Matt. 7:21-23 that this is not sufficient proof Paul ever met Jesus</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">. Instead, Jesus said to test them -- do they work ANOMIA? Do they work the negation of the Law given Moses? Do they teach contrary to the Law, leading others into law-breaking? Or do they sin in violation of the Law? If so, then they "never knew" the true Jesus.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul qualifies on either score to be said by Jesus that "I never knew you." To those who respond in wonderment how then did Paul cast out demons in Jesus' name, Jesus said it can happen. (Matt 7:21-23.) Jesus' name is powerful. Jesus can even answer the prayer of a man who does not know Him. A lost soul can effectively call upon Jesus' powerful name. For Jesus elsewhere explains Satan cannot cast out Satan, for that would represent a house divided. (<a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/12-26.htm">Matt .12:26</a>.) Thus, only Jesus is casting out a demon at the request of someone to whom Jesus says "I do not know you." Who says so? Jesus!</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul Contradicts Jesus On This Very Issue On How To Test The Encounter</span></strong></span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul speaks differently. But then contradicting the teachings of Jesus -- the one whom Paul claims to follow and speak for -- further explains why Paul did not properly test the encounter's characteristics.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul contradicts Matthew 7:21-23 by Paul's claims in 2 Cor. 12:12 and Romans 15:19 that his doing signs and wonders in Jesus' name </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"><em>proves Paul did meet Jesus</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">, and was commissioned as an apostle. </span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"><em>But Jesus emphatically says NO</em></strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> in Matthew 7:21-23 as well as in Matthew 24:24-27, as we just proved above.</span></span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Here are Paul's two contradictions of Jesus where Paul says such signs are proof Paul not only knew Jesus but was commissioned as an apostle:</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">First, Paul expressly said his validity turned on "signs and wonders." (2 Cor. 12:<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20cor.%2012:12&version=ASV">12.</a>) He said:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"The things that mark an apostle—<strong><em>signs, wonders</em></strong> and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance." <em>Id.</em></span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Lastly, Paul in Romans <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2015:19&version=ASV">15:19</a> likewise said:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Through mighty <strong><em>signs and wonders</em></strong>, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ."</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Greek roots for 'signs and wonders' in Paul's two statements were "<em>semeion</em>" and "<em>teraton</em>."</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In a similar passage to Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus told us to be on guard about those who could lead us astray. Jesus said they would use '<em>semeion</em>' and '<em>teraton</em>' -- signs and wonders --- the very same roots of the<em><strong> Greek words as Paul used</strong></em> (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2024:24&version=KJV">Matthew 24:24</a>) -- to seduce us to follow them. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">These passages of Matthew 7:21-23 and 24:24 prove clearly that signs and wonders are<strong><em> no proof that one coming in His name was from God</em></strong>. </span></p>
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<hr />
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> <strong style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul Closed His Mind About Who Was This Blinding Light</span></strong></span></p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><hr /></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In the three versions of the vision account recorded in Acts, the blinding light goes from a "light" (Acts 9:1-9), to a "great light" (Acts 22:3-11) to a "light brighter than the Sun." (Acts <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2026:9-20&version=KJV">26:9-20</a>.) This light blinded Paul. The question arises: what could be the source of this light? After all, the Bible says Lucifer is an <strong><em>angel of light</em></strong>. (See this <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/223-who-is-the-blinding-angel-of-light.html">link</a> for more discussion.) Could it be Lucifer then?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Based upon Paul's writings, we find that this obvious association did not ever cross Paul's mind. Paul asks the voice who it is. The voice said in version 1 in Acts 9 and in version 3 in Acts 26: "I am Jesus whom you persecute." Beyond that, Luke gives us no other reason to prove this is Jesus. Should Paul be taking a <strong><em>blinding light's</em></strong> word for anything? Some commentators suggest not:</span></p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Apparently all it took to convince Paul that he was hearing the voice of Jesus was for the voice to say so." (Delos B. McKown,<em> </em><em>Behold the Antichrist: Bentham on Religion</em> (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2004) at page 122.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">McKown comments that "taken at face value, this <strong><em>reveals credulity (or gullibility) of a high order</em></strong>." <em>Id. </em>at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?ei=TOTOTIyKD8SCngfG9vjeCQ&ct=result&id=qh3XAAAAMAAJ&dq=(Delos+B.+McKown+Behold+the+Antichrist:+Bentham+on+Religion&q=gullibility#search_anchor">122</a>.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul is aware that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light. See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20cor.%2011:14&version=NIV">2 Cor. 11:14</a>. Yet Paul did not choose to apply this knowledge of this fact to his experience. Luke gives us no sign of any effort by Paul to verify the light and voice was truly from Jesus.</span> </span></p>
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<hr />
|
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<p> </p>
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<h2><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Conclusion: Analogy To The Mormon "Jesus" As An Impostor</span></span></strong></span></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">We have long been trying to take the speck out of Mormons' eyes without looking at the beam in our own eye. (Matt 7:3.) For remarkably, the same fault we can find in Mormonism for teaching a Jesus Christ who appeared in a wilderness that not everyone had seen is the same fault afflicting Pauline Christianity. <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Like Pauline Christians, Mormons claim to follow a Jesus Christ who their hero (<em>i.e</em>., Joseph Smith) first learned about through "a pillar of light" that came down from heaven. (See our page on <a href="/recommendedreading/523-joseph-smiths-first-vision-account.html" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;">Joseph Smith's First Vision</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Like Pauline Christians, Mormons follow a Jesus who their hero (<em>i.e</em>., Smith) saw in his very first vision in the "woods" and "wilderness." Those are Joseph Smith's terms. (See our page on <a href="/recommendedreading/523-joseph-smiths-first-vision-account.html" style="color: #517291; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;">Joseph Smith's First Vision</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Like Pauline Christians, Mormons follow a Jesus who identifies himself with the Jesus of Galilee. "Jesus" from the pillar of light tells Smith in the wilderness that he was the "crucified one." <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(See our page on </span><a href="/recommendedreading/523-joseph-smiths-first-vision-account.html" style="color: #517291; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;">Joseph Smith's First Vision</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.) (Mormonism has no crucifixion happening to their "Jesus" in America so Smith's Jesus claims to be the Galilean Jesus.)</span></span></p>
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||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Like Pauline Christians, Mormons follow a hero (<em>i.e.</em>, Joseph Smith) whose followers insisted that he used Christ's name to cast out demons. (<a href="http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/DWillers.html">Diedrich Willers Letter (1830) at 1</a>.) <br /><a href="/images/stories/Lessons/bom.jpg"><br /></a></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, Willers, a good Christian who knew scripture, said that Smith's ability to cast out demons did not prove Smith knew Christ, citing Matthew 7:21-23, just as we do above about Paul. <em>Id.</em></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Finally, like Pauline Christians, Mormons do away with the Gospel-Jesus. They are like Pauline Christians who teach that Paul in 2 Cor. 5:16 tells us to no longer follow the gospel message of Jesus given in the flesh. Paul supposedly tells us that message is a superceded message. Now we must allegedly follow only the Jesus whom Paul experienced. (See<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/176-bultmann-on-paul.html"> Bultmann on Paul</a>). </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Mormons similarly believe </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">God told Smith we must listen to only the Jesus of Smith's vision. The "God" of this vision tells Smith that all Christian sects are wrong, implying our gospels accounts of Jesus are all wrong. The plates delivered later by the Angel Moroni which Smith translated into the Book of Mormon clearly imply our gospels are all altered and entirely untrustworthy, including all the words of Jesus. See 1 Nephi 13:26. (See our page on </span><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/523-joseph-smiths-first-vision-account.html" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">Joseph Smith's First Vision</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">.) </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Did you know that? Did you know there is <em><strong>virtually no distinction between what Paul experienced and what Smith experienced</strong></em>? With the same consequence? <em><strong>Both times, the intention is we abandon the Jesus of the Gospels!</strong></em></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Why did the vision of Smith's experience get recorded in such a way that any Christian familiar with Matthew 24:4-5 and 26-27 could not get duped? That passage so obviously applies to Joseph Smith -- just as it obviously applies to Paul!</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The reason? </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Just as God restricted what Satan could do with Job (<a href="http://biblehub.com/job/1-12.htm">Job 1:12</a>), God obviously restricted the false "Jesus." This counterfeit could appear only in a wilderness. The false Jesus had to say "I am Jesus" or an equivalent. By these restrictions, all accounts of the false Jesus-es (whether Mormon or Pauline) reveal details by which we can know to apply Matthew 24:4-5, 26-27. The accounts are not permitted to omit details that they saw Jesus in the wilderness -- and that Jesus was not seen universally. This way God can put us to the test: <em><strong>will we be duped or not?</strong></em> Are we listening intently to Jesus or not?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, making such a test about who spoke to Smith in the wilderness is not unkind. </span><em style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"><strong>It is Biblical to make such a test. </strong></em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is obedient to Christ! It is thus likewise equally obedient to Christ to test Paul by the same criteria.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But to this, a foul is called. W</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">asn't Paul miraculously converted? Luke does not say that. That is an assumption we Christians erroneously have long made.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Instead, Luke tells us just before the vision that Paul was a notorious unrepentant sinner. A murderer. And Paul admits he was a blasphemer. Surely, such a person would be unable to discern the spiritual invalidity of this exciting experience. </span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Just prior to the encounter, Paul was a "blasphemer and violent man," as Paul confesses. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20tim.%201:13&version=KJV">1 Tim. 1:13</a>). Luke depicts Paul in the prior verse to the encounter as uttering "<em><strong>murderous threats</strong></em>." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%209:1&version=KJV">Acts 9:1</a>.) In this horrific spiritual state, Paul easily became a dupe of the impostor voice-and-light Jesus who revealed himself on the Road to Damascus. All those who follow a Pauline Jesus are equally sincere and zealous, as was Paul, but all are dupes of <em><strong>a cunning fraud perpetrated upon Paul</strong></em>.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For Jesus specifically prophesied that persons will come in His name -- the name of Jesus -- and claim to be Jesus the Messiah. These false Jesus-es will lead many astray. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=KJV">Matt. 24:4-5</a>.) These figures will use "signs and wonders" to lead astray even the elect, if that were possible. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=KJV">Matt. 24:24</a>.) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">How great is our Lord to leave us prophecies for those who have 'ears to hear' which would protect His flock who closely listen to Him, our sole Teacher. And this proves the truth of the following statement:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Whatever the devil cannot be or do as it relates to God in Jesus Christ, he will either <em><strong>counterfeit</strong></em></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> or wipe out." Gary Flannigan, </span><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">111: The Media War</em><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"> </em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(2008) at 131.</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, with the same vigor that we as Christians reject Mormonism, we must come to reject Pauline Christianity. They both equally reflect impostor versions of Jesus. We need to restore Christianity to its founder: the true Jesus. We need to return to the Jesus we read about in the four gospels, in particular the gospels of Matthew, Luke and John. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Once we repent of Paulinism, then (but only then) can we credibly find fault with Mormonism's claim. We can prove that Joseph Smith's appointment of 12 more apostles is invalid under Acts 1:21-22. The apostles ruled that Judas' replacement had to be one from the beginning of Jesus' Galilean ministry. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Until we abandon Paul, we are hamstrung by our allegiance to Paul to criticize Mormonism for the same blatant flaw from which Mormonism suffers. For Mormons mock Christians who try to invalidate the 12 new Mormon "Apostles of Jesus Christ" by this Acts 1:21-22 test. They argue if applied, it would equally apply to Paul, and evangelicals will retract the argument when they realize the consequence means they have to give up on Paul as an apostle. Mormon apologists note in <a href="http://www.fairlds.org/authors/misc/ask-the-apologist-must-all-apostles-literally-see-christ">Must All Apostles Literally See Christ</a>:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Many of our Christian brothers and sisters use this supposed requirement to eliminate the LDS apostles as real apostles, and they attempt to use the Bible as the basis for their rejection. How do we respond? Let us take a look at what the Bible says regarding the matter. Most of the critics will use Acts 1:21-26 [i.e., replacement of Judas had to be disciple from beginning of Galilean ministry until Ascension.]</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The problem here is Acts 1 does not lay down this criterion for all future apostles. <em><strong>Paul, of course, would not meet this requirement, yet I’ve never met a Christian that didn’t view Paul as an apostle</strong></em>. ****</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Most LDS critics will admit that Paul was an exception. And while doing so, declare <em><strong>the requirements stated in Acts 1 null and void for future apostles</strong></em>. Paul did not accompany the original apostles from the baptism by John to the day He ascended into heaven....<em><strong>For some reason</strong></em>, however, the critics claim that this is<strong><em> the lone exception</em></strong> and thus, the Lord would not allow any others. Certainly, one is free to make such a claim, but the Bible contains<strong><em> no foundation for it</em></strong>.</span></p>
|
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<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Because we make an unfounded exception for Paul, Mormons persist in teaching their Jesus can add a whole set of numerous more apostles.</span></p>
|
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<p> </p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, with Paul esconced in our camp, we become the blind trying to lead the blind. We are crippled in any effort to correct Mormons. They point out that we will not apply the same test to Paul because it would disqualify him. Hence, they don't have to listen to our critique of what are the qualifications of a true apostle in Acts 1, <em>i.e.</em>, one who was with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry until the Ascension. </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In this way, we lose the decisive points that </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">would end the claims of Mormonism. Our failure is due to our affection and adherence to Paul. <em><strong>Because we will not relent, another heresy worse than the first (Paulinism) now afflicts the name of Jesus.</strong></em> We do nothing to defend Jesus on the strongest grounds because to do so will damage Paul. </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">What is at stake for our beligerant defiance of Jesus' words? The loss of Jesus' gospel by a completely different gospel -- Paulinism, Mormonism, and whatever ism that will claim a non-gospel Jesus is its inspiration.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What do you think Jesus thinks about all this? That we let the Mormon deception run rampant for to properly expose it will also expose Paul as equally unable to pass the very tests which destroy Mormonism? Our silence was deliberate: we let Mormonism continue for otherwise we will expose Paul as invalid. Our silence is deafening and damning at the same time. It proves we are protecting Paul even when it means <span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>we as a Christian community are letting the true Jesus be thrown under the bus</strong></span>. Our Lord's final judgment for this behavior is obvious. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">I will let Anthony Buzzard, a reputable pastor, have the last word. In his article "<a href="http://focusonthekingdom.org/articles/luther.htm">The Amazing Shift Away from Jesus in the Popular Gospel</a>," he analyzes the Paulinism of Luther who taught it proper to ignore the Jesus of Matthew, Mark and Luke to find the Gospel of Jesus primarily in Paul's writings. The consequence of focusing on Paul's teachings to define the gospel, Buzzard says, has had the <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><em>effect</em> of giving us a <strong>counterfeit Christ</strong> -- which is what <em><strong>I say is actually what happened</strong></em> on the road to Damascus. It was Satan indeed who provided a counterfeit on the Road to Damascus. Thus, Pastor Buzzard <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">unwittingly</span></strong> proves our point when he writes:</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">It seems to me clear that Satan could well play on the weakness of the religious spirit of man by <em><strong>presenting a Jesus who is only vaguely and superficially the Jesus of the Bible</strong></em>. The <strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">counterfeit</span> </strong>could, however, be most subtle. <strong><em>Satanic strategy would work hard to separate Jesus from His own teachings</em></strong> (laid out in their clearest form in Matthew, Mark and Luke). “Jesus” might then be only a religious symbol offered as a spiritual panacea for the world’s and individuals’ ills.<em><strong> The Jewish, apocalyptic Jesus</strong></em>, preacher of a coming just society on earth — the Kingdom of God — might then <em><strong>fall into disrepute and obscurity</strong></em>. His reappearance in preaching would probably appear strange and unwanted even to churchgoers who have been fed a diet missing the New Testament Hebrew ingredients.<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></span></span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: xx-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">The End.</span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<hr />
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<p> </p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">YouTube version of this article -- see this </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YjnMdjLde0&feature=related" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">link</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.</span></p>
|
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<hr />
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<h1><strong><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/508-study-notes-to-article-on-damascus-account.html"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;">Study Notes & Email</span></a></span></strong></h1>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></span></p>
|
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Correct English on 'Impostor.'</span></span></strong></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, 'impostor' is considered the more correct English word derived from borrowing from the French word 'imposteur,' just as we change 'docteur' in French to 'doctor.' See <a href="http://grammarist.com/spelling/imposter-impostor/">Grammarist</a>. However, the word "imposter" is actually used more often in English than "impostor." So "impostor" is the preferred word by linquists, although in normal usage 'imposter' is preferred. I chose to change this article to 'impostor' from 'imposter' as I originally had it.</span></span></p>
|
||||
<h2><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></strong></span></h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">To shorten the main article, I moved this section(s) to an Appendix below.</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Appendices:</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
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<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Does The Blindness of Paul & Bright Light Constitute "Signs" & "Wonders" in The Encounter Which Match Jesus' Warning?</strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<hr style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;" />
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span>Paul saw the light, and was soon thereafter blinded. Otherwise, Paul </span><strong style="font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;"><em>solely heard an unfamiliar voice</em></strong><span>. Paul must have regarded this blindness from the light as a great sign from heaven. This must have served as the 'proof' in Paul's mind that he needed to believe this was the true Jesus. Paul himself later would inflict blindness on Elymas (Acts 13:11). Paul called his workings of such affliction "signs and wonders." Thus, Paul must have viewed such blindness-afflicting powers by the light he encountered as a 'sign and wonder' which verified it as supposedlyfrom the true Jesus.</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But was this a sign or wonder from God? And would the Lord of life actually inflict blindness on someone supposedly miraculously converted moments before, as most commentators insist happened? One must wonder. Jesus said He came to "restore sight to the blind." (Luke 4:18-19.) The true Jesus only restored sight to the blind, and never inflicted blindness. See M<span>atthew </span><span><span>9:27</span></span><span>,28 , Mathew </span><span><span>20:29</span></span><span>-34 , Mark</span><span><span>10:46</span></span><span>-52 , Luke 18: 35-43. See <a href="http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/4309.htm"></a><a href="http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/4309.htm">http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/4309.htm</a> </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In the Bible, God never inflicts blindness <em><strong>on regenerate persons</strong></em>. God through the angels inflicts blindness in Genesis 19 on <em><strong>evil lost men</strong></em> to protect Lot from the men of Sodom trying to enter his house. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+19">Genesis 19:4-11</a>.) This was clearly inflicted on evil unregenerate men. God in Deuteronomy 28 promises to inflict blindness, and cause you to grope in mid day, when you refuse to obey his law. Hence, any infliction of blindness if it truly came from God, would have to only be upon an unregenerate lost soul. It would be punishment. Thus, if this sign were from God, Paul should have realized it was a punishment for the evil he had done, not because now he was "chosen" by God.</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There is no example of God inflicting blindness on a regenerate man in the Bible. Some believe Samson proves otherwise. However, Samson, a man of God, was blinded by the Philistine, not by God. This happened only after Samson's last link to the power of God was broken when Delilah cut his hair, breaking the Nazirite vow (to which Samson was subject) not to let his hair be cut. Prior to that time, Samson, an Israelite, was spiritually blinded first that he had gone against a Law (which was only applicable to Israelites) when he said a "foreign woman" was "right for my eyes" (Judges 14:1.) Hence, physical blindness in the Bible can come from evil forces upon a spiritually blind person when God's power is no longer present at all over that person's life. God never inflicts blindness on the regenerate. See Chad Harstock, <em>Sight & Blindness in Luke-Acts</em> (Brill: 2008) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=jsMz-aGbv-oC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=samson+blindness&source=bl&ots=_9GBFJRQsD&sig=9w-NsOz7Be4qBBotkuPowtrhOXo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s4xZUpSHN-GDiQLS_oFo&ved=0CCsQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=samson%20blindness&f=false">107</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Wasn't the fact that Paul was "breathing murders" as Luke depicts him (Acts (9:1) just before this experience prove Paul was as spiritually blind as you could be? If God inflicted this blindness, this alone would prove Paul was unregenerate and lost. Wasn't Paul's self-professed being a <span>"blasphemer and violent man" (</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20timothy%201:13&version=NIV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-size: medium; line-height: 20px;">1 Tim. 1:13</a><span>)</span> just prior to this render Paul as completely outside the power of God as Samson? Didn't this also therefore subject Paul to the power of evil to blind him just as Samson became?</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, if one thought God caused this blindness instead, we know God wouldn't ever blind Paul unless Paul was a completely lost soul like the men whom the angels blinded in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+19">Genesis 19:4-11</a>. So either way, Paul was unregenerate at the moment of this appearance of someone coming in Jesus' </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">name.</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In sum, signs and wonders must have been the means by which the voice convinced Paul this was the real Jesus. But tragically Paul did not ask himself whether the one who came to "restore sight to the blind" would actually inflict blindness on someone who Paul believes converted him miraculously prior to blinding him.</span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">And even if Paul did not know blindness is never a work of God except on the lost, didn't Jesus prophesy warnings to his true apostles to not rely upon all such "signs and wonders" anyway if someone thinks they saw Jesus on a wilderness way, such as the "way" to Damascus (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%209:3&version=NIV">Acts 9:3</a>, NIV)? </span></p>
|
||||
<p> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #0000ff; line-height: 1.3em;"><span>The Delayed But Impactful Consequence Of Paul's Error</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"> </p>
|
||||
<hr style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;" />
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Had Paul heeded that warning about false Christs, world history would look very different. While Paul's doctrines laid dormant for 1500 years, Luther revived them in the Reformation of 1517. (See Renan, <em>St. Paul</em> (1875) at 327, excerpted at this </span><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/140-renan.html" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">link</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.) While Carlstadt, the co-founder of the Reformation in 1517 with Luther, tried in 1520 to repress Paul and give Jesus' doctrine superiority, Luther retaliated by expelling and then crushing Carlstadt in 1522. (See our </span><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/193-carlstadt-research.html" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 1.3em;">link</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">.) This has led to the rise of modern Pauline Christianity. The consequences have been devastating.</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As Bonhoeffer bemoaned, we now have a "Christianity without Christ." (Bonhoeffer, <em>Cost of Discipleship</em> (1936) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=08_-u4Kqm_8C&lpg=PA21&ots=crk-Edijx4&dq=bonhoeffer%20christianity%20without%20christ&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q=christianity%20without%20christ&f=false">39</a>.) Of the resulting dominant Protestantism, Kierkegaard, a true theologian of merit, wrote in the 1850s: "[Pauline] <em style="color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6364px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>Protestantism</strong></em> is altogether untenable. It is a revolution brought on by <em style="color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6364px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>proclaiming 'the Apostle Paul' at the expense of the Master (Christ)</strong></em>." (Kierkegaard, <em>Papers and Journals</em> (1996) at<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=nuSmfkxkAWMC&lpg=PA629&ots=noBGnu5WM1&dq=kierkegaard%20%20apostle'%20(Paul)%20at%20the%20expense%20of%20the%20Master&pg=PA629#v=onepage&q&f=false" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6364px; line-height: 20px;"> 629</a> -- books.google link to original).) </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus clearly foresaw something just like this would precede his Second Coming. Jesus implied by the time of His return few would be left who still hold to the true faith:</span></p>
|
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<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"> </p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?" (<a href="http://biblehub.com/luke/18-8.htm">Luke 18:8</a>. NLT.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px;"> </p>
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<p> </p>
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<td valign="top" ><p>Doctrine based on the witness of Jesus' words is the one hope for unity in the present chaotic division in the churches. (Minister, A. Buzzard, 1998)</p></td>
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<h3>Recommendations</h3>
|
||||
<p><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
|
||||
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
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<h4><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">1. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07_A6GlD_so">Did Jesus warn us of Paul as the "Least Man" in Matthew 5:19?</a></span></h4>
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<div class="moduleS1">
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<div>
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<div>
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<h3>Recommendations</h3>
|
||||
<p><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
|
||||
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
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<p>None above affiliated with me</p> </div>
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<h1><strong>Marcionism-The Forgotten Crisis</strong></h1>
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<h2>Overview/Introduction</h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">An important but frequently forgotten episode in the early church was the movement founded by Marcion near 144 A.D. It is known as Marcionism.<img src="/images/stories/JWOBook/marcion.jpg" width="159" height="200" alt="marcion" style="float: right;" /></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is important because it explains the two gospels in the current New Testament and why they were tolerated. Marcionism was a split in the church that almost divided Christianity in two. Marcion taught only Paul had the correct gospel of Jesus,<em> i.e.</em>, faith alone, but the twelve apostles presented a Jesus who supposedly had a superceded gospel that did not apply to Gentiles. Marcion said the twelve taught a gospel of Law where disobedience caused loss of salvation, especially found in Matthew's Gospel. <span style="color: #800080;">[Ancient drawing of Marcion]</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">A prominent leader of early orthodox Christianity was Tertullian. In 207 A.D. Tertullian in <em>Against Marcion</em> rebutted Marcion by attacking Paul. He questioned whether Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, saying a self-serving claim, as Paul made of being an apostle of Jesus, does not suffice. Tertullian suggested Paul was a false prophet. He also called Paul the "apostle of the heretics." (See below, <em>Marcionism - Excerpt from JWOS</em>]</span></p>
|
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<h3><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Split Healed By Joining Paul's Writing To Canon Only As 'Scripture' (A Term-of-Art in that Era)</span></strong></h3>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This split was healed by including Paul's writings in the late 2d century canon but treating Paul as "Scripture" which does not mean what we think today. In the OT, the third division after the "Law and Prophets" was the "Writings" section, which translates in Greek as "Scripture."</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The "Scripture" or "Writings" section is where Jews put works that were viewed as only sometimes inspired, or which had not yet been determined to be prophetic. For example, in Jesus' day, Daniel was still in the Writings/Scripture section rather than the Prophets section even though Daniel claimed to be a prophet. See <em>Hope for Today Bible</em> (2009) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=SIVrZ1xLzGQC&lpg=PA951&dq=daniel%20writing%20section%20bible&pg=PA951#v=onepage&q=daniel%20writing%20section%20bible&f=false">951</a> ("The book of Daniel is found in the <strong><em>third section of the Hebrew Bible</em></strong> known as the<em><strong> 'Writings</strong></em>,' rather than the second section 'the Prophets.'")</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, the term <em>Scripture</em> in those days had one usage to mean edifying material that was not yet recognized as fully inspired. It is a term of art whose meaning is sadly forgotten. Scripture/Writings was a term applied to something that should not be used as the basis for doctrine until more proof allows one to elevate it to fully Prophet-section materials.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, until accepted as 100% inspired, such a writing was kept in the "Scriptures" scroll to show a lesser authority. For a scholarly brief discussion on the "Writings" section of the OT and its lack of 100% inspired status, and that Jesus affirmed the same understanding, see this "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/335-writings-section-of-original-testament-of-bible-knol.html">Writings Section</a>" article.</span></p>
|
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<h3><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Early Church Approach To Third-Tier Writings Permissibly Joined To Canon</span></strong></h3>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In the early Christian church, with that true perception of canon still well-known (unlike now when it is forgotten), the church could attach merely edifying works to the Bible without causing any misunderstanding that this implied the author was 100% inspired. For example, Jerome in 402 A.D. attached the Apocrypha to the official Bible -- the Vulgate Bible. He explained elsewhere his purpose was because it was merely edifying. It was not because it was inspired. The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) forgot this and at the famous Council of Trent in the 1500s the RCC said the Apocrypha too was 100% inspired in every word. More important, this reminds us the standard for joinder was not necessarily inspiration in those earliest days.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, Paul was attached after the split caused by Marcionism. His joinder was evidently designed to bring Marcionites (Paul-only Christians) back into the Orthodox church. As a result, eventually Orthodox Christianity defeated or merged with Marcionism by the end of the 300s.</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">(The Roman Catholic Church, however, succumbed to accept various doctrines of Marcionism including docetism. See <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/206-marcionite-influence-on-rcc.html">Marcionite Influence Over the RCC</a>.)</span></p>
|
||||
<h3><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Efforts in Reformation To Revive Correct Understanding of Tiers of Authority</span></strong></h3>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Incidentally, this understanding that books in "Scripture" meant third-tier authority was sought to be revived by the co-founder of the Reformation - Andreas Carlstadt. The first book in the Reformation to discuss Canon was Carlstadt's <em>Canonicis Scripturis</em> of 1520. Carlstadt revived the old divisions of the OT, and applied the same to the NT. In doing so, Carlstadt placed Paul inferior to Jesus. Carlstadt analogized Paul to the inferior grade in the OT known as the 'Scripture' (Ketuvim or <em>Writings) </em>section, making Jesus on par with the first tier of the OT (<em>i.e.</em>, Law.) (See our <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/193-carlstadt-research.html">webpage</a> on this.) Despite Carlstadt co-founding the Reformation with Luther, Luther turned on Carlstadt and persecuted him for taking Paul down a notch, driving Carlstadt and his followers from the movement.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Here I will provide quotes from my various books that discuss Marcionism for background on this important movement:</span></p>
|
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<h2>Marcionism Similar to Calvinism/Lutheranism</h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thomas Scheck aptly states he found “<strong><em>real and apparent similarities</em></strong> between certain <strong><em>Protestant theological formulae</em></strong>, especially those of Calvinism and Lutheranism, <strong><em>and</em></strong> the assertions of Gnostic and <strong><em>Marcionite exegesis</em></strong>....” (Thomas Scheck, <em>Origen: Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans</em> (Washington DC: CUA, 2001-02) at 1.23-4.) [<em>Jesus Words on Salvation</em> at 570 fn. 44.]</span></p>
|
||||
<h2>Marcionism -- Excerpt from Jesus Words on Salvation at pp <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4V8tMJ75bnwC&lpg=PP1&dq=jesus%20words%20on%20salvation&pg=PA578#v=onepage&q&f=false">578 </a>et seq.</h2>
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<p style="margin: 0.25in 0in 4pt; line-height: 15pt;" class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: black;">Importance of Protestants Coming to Grips with the Early Heretic Marcion’s Cheap Grace Doctrine </span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Has the last four hundred years been a waste? Has the descent into cheap grace at odds with Jesus’ doctrine all this time been an unprecedented error? No. This has been a valuable period of cleansing of doctrinal errors. However, our response to those errors ended up in over-reaction. We need to come back to Jesus. It is that simple. We can take encouragement from the fact that this very same error happened once before. Let’s see how the early church escaped, and perhaps we can simply repeat the measures taken back then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Most Protestants are utterly unaware that Paulinism, in particular faith alone doctrine, previously threatened to overwhelm Jesus’ salvation doctrine and destroy it. In 144 A.D., there arose a ship-builder from Pontus named Marcion. He founded a church system that rivaled in numbers and influence that of the orthodox Christian church. By 150 A.D., Justin wrote that Marcionites had expanded “to the uttermost bounds of the earth.” [Justin, <em>Apology</em> 1.26.] It required three hundred years for the orthodox church to eventually rout out the heresy of Marcion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Marcion was not battling the Roman Catholic church. It did not yet exist. Instead, there was a large orthodox church led from Jerusalem. The Roman bishop was just one bishop among many throughout the Mediterranean. Even if Peter was in Rome at one point, there was no effort to exercise superiority from Rome until many centuries later.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">What happened is that Marcion declared in 144 A.D. that Paul alone was the true apostle for the era of grace; the twelve apostles, in particular their gospel of Matthew, were tainted by legalism; the Jesus of the twelve belonged to the God of the Old Testament; and the Jesus of Paul represented the son of a loving Father who now accepted us by faith alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In Marcion’s book known as the <em>Antitheses</em>, which exists only in fragments quoted by others, we find endorsement of everything Pauline, including faith alone. Marcion’s primary antithesis involved faith and law. On one hand, there was the Law given Moses, which the apostolic twelve endorsed in Matthew’s gospel. On the other hand, there was the faith alone doctrine of Paul. To solve this antithesis, Marcion invented the idea that Christ had two personages — the one of the twelve and the one presented by Paul. The Jesus of the twelve represented the Creator-God of the Old Testament. The Jesus of Paul represented the Good God or the Father of the New Testament. The <em>Antitheses </em>of 144 A.D. reads:</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 6pt 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'ZapfEllipt BT'; color: black;">18.The Jewish Christ [of Matthew <em>et al</em>] was designated by the Creator [<em>i.e.</em>, the God of the Old Testament] solely to restore the Jewish people from the Diaspora; but our Christ [present in Paul’s writings] was commissioned by the good God [of the new testament] to liberate all mankind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0in 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'ZapfEllipt BT'; color: black;">19. The Good [God] [of Paul’s Jesus] is good toward all men; the Creator [God of the Jesus of the twelve], however, promises salvation only to those who are obedient to him [<em>i.e.</em>, legalism]. The Good [God of Paul’s Jesus] redeems those who <strong><em>believe</em></strong> in him, but<strong><em> he does not judge those who are disobedient</em></strong> to him; the Creator [God of the twelve’s Jesus], however, redeems his faithful and judges and punishes the sinners.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0in 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'ZapfEllipt BT'; color: black;">29. The Christ [of the Creator God represented by the twelve] promises to the Jews the restoration of their former condition by return of their land and, after death, a refuge in Abraham’s bosom in the underworld [<em>i.e.</em>, Sheol/hell]. Our Christ [of the Jesus presented by Paul] will establish the Kingdom of God, an eternal and heavenly possession.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0in 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 19px; font-size: 15.8333px;">(Source: Dr. Peter M. Head (New Testament Research Fellow, Tyndale House), <span style="font-size: 15.8333px;"><a href="http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale/staff/Head/Lent_01_Handout.htm">The History of the Interpretation of the Apostle Paul </a>(2001).</span></span><span style="line-height: 19px; font-size: 15.8333px;">)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="color: black;">The Jerusalem church previously replied to anti-Law and faith-alone doctrine by saying Paul was an apostate and did not represent true Christianity. As Professor James Dunn notes: “The most direct heirs of the Jewish-Christian groupings within earliest Christianity [<em>i.e.</em>, the early Jerusalem church]<strong><em> regarded Paul as the great apostate</em></strong>, an arch enemy,” citing <em>Epistula Petri</em> 2.3; <em>Clem. Hom</em>. 17:18-19.<a name="_ftnref3"></a> (<o:p></o:p></span>James D. G. Dunn, <em>The Cambridge Companion to St. Paul </em>(Cambridge University Press, 2003) at 2.)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The Jerusalem church’s response is directly reflected in our New Testament. As Augustine noted in 413 A.D. in his treatise <em>Faith and Works</em>, the epistles of James (the first bishop of Jerusalem), Jude (the second bishop of Jerusalem),<a name="_ftnref4"></a> and Second Peter were specifically written to destroy “faith alone” doctrine as inferred from Paul’s epistles. (See page <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4V8tMJ75bnwC&lpg=PP1&dq=jesus%20words%20on%20salvation&pg=PA523#v=onepage&q&f=false">523</a>n <em>supra</em>.) Second Peter even said many would fall from their “steadfastness in Christ” by relying upon “difficult to understand” passages in the writings of Paul. These passages were seen as giving a “liberty” that Second Peter said was foreign to the true gospel. (See pages <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4V8tMJ75bnwC&lpg=PP1&dq=jesus%20words%20on%20salvation&pg=PA500#v=onepage&q&f=false">500</a>-504 <em>supra</em>.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Tertullian, an orthodox church member in Carthage, Africa, wrote in 207 A.D. his famous rebuttal to Marcion. In it, Tertullian raised every ground possible to dispute whether Paul was truly an apostle of Jesus Christ. Tertullian even suggested Paul was a false prophet as warned of by Jesus Christ. We previously quoted this daring analysis from Tertullian. (See pages 395-400 <em>Jesus Words Only </em>at this google-books <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=3VFnsDuxBPcC&lpg=PP1&dq=jesus'%20words%20only&pg=PA395#v=snippet&q=pontus&f=false">full view link</a>.) In that passage, Tertullian says that Paul’s claim to apostleship is totally self-serving, and by Jesus’ standards is invalid. Scholars generally now recognize this is a valid criticism of Paul’s claims. In the end, Tertullian even suggested “<strong><em>[Paul] is the apostle of the heretics.</em></strong>” (Tertullian, <em>Adversus Marcion</em> <a href="http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/1003/1001/0160-0220,_Tertullianus,_Adversus_Marcionem,_MLT.html#[0327A]">3:5</a>, “haereticorum apostolus”.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Often, Protestant historians try to obscure the real nature of Marcion’s heresy. They focus on every other dispute than the problem of Marcion’s teaching of <em>faith alone</em>. While it is true that Marcion said there was a different God for the new versus the old testaments, and this claim was battled vigorously by Tertullian, they ignore what was at stake. <strong><em>Marcion’s goal behind that argument was to justify two different salvation doctrines</em></strong>. Once he divided salvation into two dispensations — the old and the new, Marcion could defend the new is by faith alone and the old one is by obedience. Marcion hence was trying to rationalize Paul’s doctrine of faith alone as belonging to a distinct dispensation of Paul’s Jesus. Thereby, it could be valid despite contradicting Jesus’ salvation doctrine in the gospel of Matthew and John (properly translated). As Arthur Cushman McGiffert, in <em>A History of Christian Thought </em>(C. Scribner’s Sons: 1949) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?ei=w65VTLTfGJS-sQPXgenaAg&ct=result&id=Kf82AAAAMAAJ&dq=McGiffert,+in+A+History+of+Christian+Thought&q=faith+alone#search_anchor">59</a> explains:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 6pt 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: black;">For the gospel of the free grace of God and salvation by <strong><em>faith alone</em></strong> had been substituted [by the twelve apostles in their gospels], so Marcion believed, [by] a legalism of a genuinely Jewish character. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Hence, to destroy the significance of the different salvation doctrine in the twelve apostles’ gospels, Marcion claimed Paul had the right to proclaim a superseding one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Thus, Marcion represented a vigorous effort to erase any role of repentance and obedience in the Christian doctrine of salvation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 6pt 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: black;">Marcion expounded his main position in a work entitled <em>Antitheses</em>....[The God of the New Testament] was the God of grace who offered salvation to all by <strong><em>faith alone</em></strong>;.... (T. Alec Burkill, <em>The Evolution of Christian Thought</em> (Cornell University Press, 1971) at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?ei=1a9VTJmHDIa4sQP2qbDbAg&ct=result&id=5EMcAAAAMAAJ&dq=Burkill,+The+Evolution+of+Christian+Thought&q=faith+alone#search_anchor">42</a>.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0in 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: black;">After Simon Magus, it was Marcion above all whom the Fathers regarded as the arch-heretic:... the law is discarded and salvation depends on <strong><em>faith alone</em></strong>. (Hans Kung, <em>The Church</em> (Image Books: 1976) at 316.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="color: black;">Tertullian in rebuttal to Marcion conceded that the ceremonial law of the old testament was abrogated, but the moral commandments in the Law remained. To this end, Tertullian taught repentance and obedience remained absolutely essential to salvation. (<o:p></o:p></span>See my prior work, <em>Jesus’ Words Only</em> (2007) at 405-425.)</span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">When I encountered this history, I was shocked and in disbelief. David Bercot, a Protestant attorney like myself, was as equally startled by encountering Marcion as I was. After Bercot did a comprehensive survey of the doctrines of the early Church in his exhaustive 705 page <em>Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs </em>(1998), he wrote <em>Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up </em>(1999). In that work, Bercot admits he discovered that the early church, in “contradiction to many of my own theological views,” taught doctrines that universally rejected teachings which we all recognize as part of modern accepted Pauline teaching. When Bercot discusses Marcion, he expresses the same shock I experienced when I first read what Marcion taught:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 6pt 0.25in 6pt 0.6in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: black;">As surprising as all of this may be to you, <strong><em>what I’m about to tell you is even more bizarre</em></strong>. There was a religious group <strong><em>labelled as heretics</em></strong> by the early Christians, who strongly disputed the church’s stance on salvation and works [<em>i.e.</em>, that salvation depended on works]. Instead, they [<em>i.e.</em>, the heretics] taught man is totally depraved. That we are <strong><em>saved solely by grace</em></strong>. That <strong><em>works play no role in salvation</em></strong>. And that <strong><em>we cannot lose our salvation once we obtain it</em></strong>.... (<em>Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up</em>, <em>supra</em>, at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=j7K4S5n8hVAC&lpg=PP1&dq=bercot%20Will%20The%20Real%20Heretics%20Please%20Stand%20Up&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q=bizarre&f=false">66</a>.)(Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">It is obvious that Marcionism has revived. Many Protestants likewise today argue a dispensational division exists between old and new, so that Jesus’ contrary salvation doctrine to Paul’s doctrine can be <em>honestly</em> dismissed as <em>irrelevant</em>. (See dispensationalist claims on pages <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4V8tMJ75bnwC&lpg=PP1&dq=jesus%20words%20on%20salvation&pg=PA209#v=onepage&q&f=false">209</a>-210 <em>supra</em>.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Jesus and the early church had a solution to prevent Paul’s teachings from overturning those of Jesus. They were:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 3pt 0in 0.0001pt 13.65pt; text-indent: -13.65pt; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="color: black;">• </span></strong><span style="color: black;">The release of the epistles of James, Jude and Second Peter; <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 3pt 0in 0.0001pt 13.65pt; text-indent: -13.65pt; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="color: black;">• </span></strong><span style="color: black;">The release of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, with its heavy emphasis on works required for salvation, including a re-affirmation of James’ principles in Revelation 3:1-3; and<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 3pt 0in 0.0001pt 13.65pt; text-indent: -13.65pt; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong><span style="color: black;">• </span></strong><span style="color: black;">Tertullian’s brilliant examination in 207 A.D. of the lack of authenticity to Paul’s claims of apostleship and even Tertullian’s suggestion that Paul was a false prophet predicted by Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">These various attacks on Paulinism were vigorous and well-sustained. Marcion was defeated. These critical analyses must be re-published for a new generation. For four hundred years, we have been entrapped within revived Marcionism. Because Christ’s words were so powerful, Christianity lived on despite this albatross hanging on, weighing down His words in the wrong direction. Yet, by our dereliction of duty, Christ’s message is obscured. How did this happen?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="color: black;">What took place in the early Protestant Reformation is that this history about Marcion was forgotten. It was primarily Erasmus and Tyndale who initially realized that the reformation had made a significant major mistake. It had treated Paul’s doctrines regarding ‘faith alone’ as a necessity to follow even when at odds with the salvation doctrine of Jesus Christ. These two men bravely changed course. They even obviously caused Luther to change course. He too adopted <em>double justification</em> (<em>i.e.</em>, salvation begins by faith but requires works and obedience for final salvation) which essentially matches Jesus’ doctrine. [See Preface to JWOS at this <a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/136-preface.html">webpage</a>.] Unfortunately, Luther’s heroism of 1517-18 was not matched by a later bold declaration that he realized this error. Luther tried to make this change quietly, through an ecumenical conference with the Catholic Church in 1541. Upon Luther’s death, he left it to Melancthon to continue this effort. Melancthon did so, causing the Lutheran church to adopt double justification as an official doctrine. It lasted until a short while after Melancthon’s death. </span><span style="color: black;">[See Preface to JWOS at this</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/136-preface.html">webpage</a></span><span style="color: black;">.]</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">And thus the true gospel expired from being present in any major Protestant denomination. It survives primarily only in the Pentecostal and Mennonite churches.</span></span></span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Consequently, we need spiritual and historical revival. We need to repent of the misleading ‘faith alone’ doctrine. We also need to refuse anyone else from taking Jesus/Yeshua’s place as our “sole teacher” (Matt. 23:10). We need to repent from the stain of Paulinism upon Christ’s message.</span></p>
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<p style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 14pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">END.</span></p>
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<hr />
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<p> </p>
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<h2><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Marcion Indeed Was Inspired By Paul</span></strong></h2>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The early church found the following were heresies in Marcion, but these all were doctrines taught by Paul. Hence, these parallels to Marcion whom the early church<strong><em> pre-325 AD</em></strong> universally condemned proves the church's antipathy to everything Pauline in doctrine although having affection for Paul personally.</span></p>
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<h3><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Celibacy</span></strong></h3>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Marcion’s ethics err on the side of asceticism. Tertullian claims that he forbade marriage because procreation was the invention of the Demiurge." (Robert Bradshaw, <a href="http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/article_marcion.html">Marcion - Portrait of a Heretic</a>, citing Benjamin Walker, <em>Gnosticism: Its History And Influence</em> (Wellingborough: Crucible, 1983) at 126.) Bradshaw continues:</span></p>
|
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">"Marcion… deemed <strong><em>marriage</em></strong> ‘a filthiness and an obscenity.’ It was a diabolical institution that had upon it the seal of Antichrist and the mark of Satan. It did nothing more than sanction sexual indulgence..." <em>Id.</em></span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul taught similarly, in contradiction of Christ. In 1 Cor. 10:27-28, Paul says: "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? <strong><em> Do not seek marriage</em></strong>."</span></p>
|
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<h3><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">God of Old Testament Is Supposedly Not The Same As The God of The New</span></strong></h3>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Paul in Romans 7:1-6 cannot be read to be saying anything but that when Christ died, this represented the death of the husband God who gave the Law. But when Christ rose, we were able to marry a new husband -- obviously a new God -- who did not have any link to the former Law given Moses. This disjunction of what Christ represented in His death versus the God he represented in His resurrection is how Paul explains why the Law was dissolved by Christ's death but is not in force after Jesus's resurrection. For a full discussion, see our webpage "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/167-romans-7-a-major-incongruity.html">Paul Says The God of Sinai is Dead</a>."</span></p>
|
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This directly fed Marcion the same idea -- a key heresy that Tertullian exploited to say that Marcion believed in two Gods -- one the creator Demiurge (whom was called Yahweh and died when Jesus died) and one for the NT alone -- the Father -- a kindly loving God superior to the Demiurge.</span></p>
|
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<h2>Scholars Observe Marcionism Triumphed In Terms of OT Attention</h2>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Dr David L Baker in his book <em>Two Testaments, One Bible</em> (Inter-Varsity Press 1976/1991) at 51-52 says: "There is in the church a habit of simply ignoring the Old Testament.. Bible study groups<em><strong> spend little time on Old Testament passages</strong></em>. It is clear therefore that the modern church,<em><strong> in spite of its official rejection of Marcionism</strong></em> and Neo-Marcionism, has often<em><strong> allowed implicit Marcionism in practice</strong></em>.”</span></p>
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<hr />
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<p> </p>
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<h2>Further Studies</h2>
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||||
<div><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">1. "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism">Marcionism</a>," <em>Wikipedia</em></span></div>
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||||
<div><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">2. Peter Holmes on Marcion's canon alterations in a footnote on page <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=d8U7AAAAcAAJ&dq=Tertullian%2C%20The%20five%20books%20of%20Quintus%20Sept.%20Flor.%20Tertullianus%20Against%20Marcion%20Peter%20Holmes%20Edinburgh%20T%26T%20Clark%201868&pg=PA364#v=onepage&q&f=false">364</a> in his translation entitled Tertullian,<em> The five books of Quintus Sept. Flor. Tertullianus Against Marcion</em> (trans. Peter Holmes) (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1868) .This footnote discusses all the various subtle variants that Marcion made to what was otherwise very similar to Luke's Gospel text.</span></div>
|
||||
<div><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">3. In our webpage "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/205-marcionites-tampering-with-the-text.html">Marcionites - Tampering with the Text</a>" we examine how Marcion's view was that Jesus was God, and as such, Jesus could have no brothers or sisters. Marcionites altered the text to remove reference to the same.</span></div>
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||||
<div><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">4. For more information, see B. Aland, “Marcion, Marcionites, Marcionism,” <em>Encyclopedia of the Early Church </em>(Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. 1992) Vol. 1 at 524. </span></div>
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<p style="margin: 3pt 0in 0.0001pt 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">5. <span style="color: black;" data-mce-mark="1">On James & Jude as bishops, see “Appendix to the works of Hippolytus,” <em>The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of The Third Century</em> (ed. Donaldson, Roberts & Coxe) (1886) Vol. V at 255.</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 3pt 0in 0.0001pt 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; color: black; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">6. On Marcion's work Antithesis trying to prove there is a good NT God v. an evil OT God, see "<a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/453-antithesis-of-marcion.html">Anthesis of Marcion</a>" which we preserved at our website.</span></p>
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<div id="ftn4">
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<p style="margin: 3pt 0in 0.0001pt 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
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<h2><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #0000ff;" data-mce-mark="1"><span data-mce-mark="1">Study Notes</span></span></strong></h2>
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<p style="margin: 3pt 0in 0.0001pt 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Many of the arguments of Simon Magus in rebuttal to Peter in <em>Recognitions of Clement</em> (trans. Rufinus 400 AD) sound just like the words of Marcion in favor of faith alone -- 'acknowledge' the Good God and live free versus obedience required by the creator God. For example:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt; padding-left: 30px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then Simon: “But the good God bestows salvation if he is only acknowledged; but the creator of the world demands also that the law be fulfilled.” (Recognitions<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.vi.iii.iv.lviii.html"> LVIII</a>.)</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt; padding-left: 30px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Peter mocks this plan of salvation as follows:</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt; padding-left: 30px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then said Peter: “He saves adulterers and men-slayers, if they know him; but good, and sober, and merciful persons, if they do not know him, in consequence of their having no information concerning him, he does not save! Great and good truly is he whom you proclaim, who is not so much the saviour of the evil, as he is one who shows no mercy to the good.” <em>Id.</em></span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This raises an interesting question: what was the Ebionite doctrine on salvation -- could a Job-like behavior make one righteous and be granted mercy even if you had no information about the God of the Jews in particular? I think the point more was that mental assent grants mercy in Simon Magus's view while righteous behavior does not, which is absurd. But that does not mean salvation is without faith, but that rather faith alone is absurd as a matter of principle as well as was unjust.</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">See also Justin Martyr, <em>First Apology</em> (165 AD) at XXV discussion of Marcion at page 35 of the book below -- you can leaf forward to find page 35. There is another discussion at LXXV on pages 70-71, claiming he is a "wolf" teaching another god with another son besides the Creator. They try to seduce man from "God the Creator, and his first-begotten Son."</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 11.5pt; text-indent: -11.5pt; line-height: 13pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> See also, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism">Marcionism</a>," Wikipedia (2013).</span></p>
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<td valign="top" ><span>Thus says YHWH, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it: And you shall find rest for your souls...." </span>(Jer. 6:16)</td>
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<h3>Recommendations</h3>
|
||||
<p><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
|
||||
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
|
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<p>None above affiliated with me</p> </div>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Dresden Fire Bombing - A Plea For Justice</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Allied forces firebombed Dresden when the German nation no longer could defend itself. The Allied forces massacred deliberately civilians in ordinary cities -- young men not at war, mothers with children, vacationers, etc.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Was this necessary to bring Germany to its knees? Would the war machine care that civilians were being killed? </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">We as Christians must speak out for wrongs that can be righted to be righted in deed.</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">At <em><strong>History Hub,</strong></em> in <a href="http://www.austincc.edu/caddis/worldwar2b">Textbook</a>, we read the following admission:</span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong>Allied Bombing of Germany<br /></strong></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">By the time the Allies discovered the camps in 1945, Germany was nearly defeated. They'd already run out of fuel, grounding the </span><em style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 23.0400009155273px; line-height: normal;">Luftwaffe </em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">and exposing the country to unopposed aerial bombardment. Even midway through the <img src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02796/lost-new-dresden_2796200c.jpg" alt="" style="float: right;" />war, Germany began to run so low on fuel that they had trouble training pilots. Their main source of oil, Romania, switched sides and left the Axis Powers in 1944. </span><br style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 23.0400009155273px; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> The Allies took advantage, murdering civilians from the air <strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">more out of revenge than any constructive strategic purpose</span></strong>. In carpet-bombing raids over cities like Hamburg and Dresden (right), they dropped incendiary (flammable) bombs in sufficient numbers to create firestorms. Once engulfed, the conflagrations <strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">generated enough suction to incinerate the towns completely</span></strong>. Fighter pilots then strafed civilians trying to flee on outlying roads. As FDR put it in a 1943 radio address, “The fascists have asked for it and they'll get it.” Churchill, with memories of the Blitz still fresh among the British, said, “One of our great aims is the delivery on German towns of the largest possible </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fotothek_df_ps_0000010_Blick_vom_Rathausturm.jpg" style="color: #b7270b; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 23.0400009155273px; line-height: normal;"><img src="http://www.austincc.edu/caddis/ImagesText%20copy/World%20War%20II/Dresden.jpg" alt="Dresden, Germany
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1945" width="293" height="293" title="Dresden, Germany 1945: Allegorie der Güte, by
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Pöppelmann, Peter (Bildhauer)" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" vspace="2" /></a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">quantity of bombs per night.” Royal Air Force bombs big enough to level entire city blocks were nicknamed </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_bomb" style="color: #b7270b; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 23.0400009155273px; line-height: normal;"><em>blockbusters</em></a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">, and the term soon spread to Hollywood. [END OF QUOTE] </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The London Telegraph recently posted in 2015 certain archive footage of the attack. It explained that on February 13th and 14th, 1945, the process began, killing at least <em><strong>25,000</strong> </em>civilians and as many as 100,000. (<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/11393917/The-firebombing-of-Dresden-archive-footage.html">Link</a>.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Forty-percent of the 3,900 tons of bombs dropped in 2 days were incendiary in nature. See "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebombing">Firebombing</a>,<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><em>" </em>Wikipedia. This means they were designed to set off fires to cause a firestorm, suffocating the citizens of Dresden. <br /></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Hiroshima Bomb dropped the equivalent of 1,200 tons of incendiary bombs ... meaning that the Dresden firebombing was equivalent in firepower to 3 nuclear bombs landing on Hiroshima. "<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">It has been estimated, for example, that the <em><strong>same fire ferocity and damage produced at Hiroshima</strong></em> after the dropping of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy" style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" title="Little Boy">Little Boy</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> nuclear weapon (which </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_yield" style="text-decoration: underline; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" title="Nuclear weapon yield">yielded</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">/released the<em><strong> same amount of energy as 16 </strong></em></span><em><strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT_equivalent" style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" title="TNT equivalent">kilotons of TNT</a></strong></em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><em><strong>)</strong></em> <strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">could have instead been produced by about</span></strong><em><strong> 1200 tons/1.2 kilotons of incendiary bombs</strong></em> distributed over the city." ("<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm">Firestorm</a>," Wikipedia.)</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The result for Dresden of the equivalent of 3 nuclear bombs? The Telegraph explains that 8 square miles of the city were destroyed. No military strategic targeting explains this wide devastation. For a You Tube with a warning "very graphic" in its title, see <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-Z0309-310%2C_Zerst%C3%B6rtes_Dresden.jpg/220px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-Z0309-310%2C_Zerst%C3%B6rtes_Dresden.jpg" alt="" style="float: right;" /></span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGcO6zZ4MRM" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3em;">Dresden Fire Bombing 1945</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">So was the purpose a military one? The victors shamelessly recorded the truth at the time, never suspecting how history may judge them. The British recorded 772 aircraft bombing <em><strong>the city center</strong></em> on February 14, 1945, while 316 aircraft attacked the Marshal Yards (railway depot) "west of the city center" - a valid military target. See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm">"<strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Firestorm</span>,</strong></a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">"</span> Wikipedia. Also, "<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The report by the 1st Bombardment Division's commander to his commander states that the targeting sequence was<em><strong> the centre of the built up area in Dresden</strong> </em>if the weather was clear." ("<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II">Bombing of Dresden, WW III</a>," <em>Wikipedia.</em>)</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">My Assessment</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Now, if there was little or no strategic benefit to incinerating entire towns, it would be murder. Even under cover of war. If the German Armies attacked civilians earlier, this did not mean we should do the same thing when our foe was defeated. We must act above the impulse for revenge. We treat a defeated civilian population with pity, not merciless slaughter. We treat the opposing military forces with ruthless energy until surrender. That's fine. There is a clear distinction.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Allied forces - the US, etc. -- need to provide an admission of wrongdoing, a promise to not do the same in any future wars, etc. I think the Marshall Plan was reparations enough. But the moral wrong still stings, and there are no tears from the victor for having committed needless murder on the poor citizens of Dresden. An apology is long overdue.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">How Knowing A Survivor Touched Me</span></strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">While living in Costa Rica in 1998-2002, I met a survivor of the Dresden fire-bombing. His name was Martin Borner. In 1945, Martin was 15 years old and working at a fancy Dresden hotel -- the Bellevue -- as a waiter. (See Martin photo at right in the hotel kitchen.) Martin was <img src="/images/martin_in_hotel_bellevue_Dresden_1934.jpg" alt="martin in hotel bellevue Dresden 1934" width="251" height="171" style="float: right;" />asked to go outside to the wine cellar, and he went into the metal sealed chamber to retrieve the proper bottle. This saved his life. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Martin explained how the door was forced shut by the shock-wave of the fire-bombing that set off the air which had been saturated with ignitable fuel leading up to that fateful day. For anyone outside, <em>e.g.,</em> a woman strolling her baby, it was instant death as they literally suffocated when the air was touched off by the fire-bomb. <span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><br /></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">But Martin miraculously survived when the air in the wine cellar was trapped by the force of the door shutting him in. When Martin stepped out some substantial time later, he saw people everywhere who had been suffocated walking down the street to go shopping or for strolls with their children. It was an unforgettable memory that he shared with me. [At the bottom of this article after END, you can see graphic pictures of what Martin most likely saw that day -- It is not for the faint of heart.]</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Martin's life was spared by a second fortuitous step. He explained to me that at an opportune time he fled the shelter of the wine cellar, and ran to the river, from which he watched Dresden burn in an intense fire. It was a very good thing he changed locations. By February 14th, the heat outside that cellar would have become intense due to the firestorm: "</span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">By early morning on 14 February, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday" style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" title="Ash Wednesday">Ash Wednesday</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">, the centre of the city, including its </span><em style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Altstadt</em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">, was engulfed in a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm" style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" title="Firestorm">firestorm</a><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">, with <strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">temperatures peaking at over 1500 °C (2700 °F)</span></strong>." ("<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II">Bombing of Dresden in WW II,</a>" <em>Wikipedia</em>.) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Martin's surviving that bombing directly overhead is nothing short of miraculous. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Martin later discussed these events in a 2005 book with his wife, a Brit named Tessa who lost her father in the war with Nazi Germany. Martin & Tessa married in 1957. The wounds of war between England and Germany did not deter their love -- their marriage serving like a metaphor of what Europe needed to do to prevent re-occurrence of another war. Martin & Tessa threw their lives and fortunes together, like Europe did much later.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Their book is entitled <em>English Girl, German Boy</em> (2005). It is one of the most riveting and interesting books I have ever read. It is unique. It is even more fascinating because it is true. I lived as Martin and Tessa's hotel 'guest' for three years in their Costa Rican 'paradise' known as the Posada Mimosa. They shared their book with me, and personal conversations to provide even more details. As a result, I never viewed the events of WW II quite the same. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I particularly liked the first part of each of their separate stories -- where we learn the charming tranquil lives they had before the war - all tragically torn apart by a mad-man. (My own research shows Hitler exploited resentments sown by the unfair vengeful peace treaty of Versailles in 1919 -- which unintentionally but forseeably sowed the seeds of Europe's next war.) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The details that Martin & Tessa share of day-to-day events prior to the war create vivid pictures of pre-War <img src="/images/martin_1930-31_with_dog_sled.jpg" alt="martin 1930-31 with dog sled" width="161" height="103" style="float: right;" />simple life in Whales (Tessa's youth) and remind us all about the true character of the German people -- <br />hospitable fun-loving people who, not unlike other cultures, suffered some warped figures who used lies and deception to take power. To remind us of the true spirit of the congenial majority of German people, see the photo of Martin in 1930 getting a ride from the family pet!</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I strongly recommend this book <em>English Girl, German Boy.</em> It will cause you to tear up at multiple points. It is a great human story of two people whose lives made good against all odds. You can buy the book at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0973892609/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0973892609&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwjesuswords-20&linkId=JM2VBNNDFH55R54Q">English Girl, German Boy: World War II from Both Sides</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wwwjesuswords-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0973892609" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" border="0" />, or directly order from Martin's daughter Hillary through this
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<h1><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Closing Appeal</span></span></strong></h1>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">I believe God spared Martin's life that fateful day in 1945 by a miracle. As a result, Martin could leave a legacy of good will, love, friendships and his large family. (See photo below with his wife Tessa, and their children and children's mates and their children). </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Yet, on another level, Martin also could leave another legacy -- a very important reminder about an event that is etched in a larger history. Martin is a unique witness to those events that day that Dresden was first firebombed. Martin was someone on the ground in Dresden who could remember the events, see the <img src="/images/borner_clan_at_posada.jpg" alt="borner clan at posada" width="574" height="385" style="float: right;" />horror, and then pique our consciences at even a much later point in time. Martin reminds us to redress the wrong done to Dresden. </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">It is true that the victor writes the history, as Napoleon said. However, the victor cannot expunge its sins by simply ignoring them. We Americans must promise never to use or support the cover of war again to exact revenge and thus justify mass murder of civilians. One wrong does not make another right.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The End.</span></span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<hr />
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<p> </p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">For an obituary of one of my favorite persons to know -- </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Martin Eberhart Börner, please visit this <a href="http://www.koprivataylor.com/home/index.cfm/obituaries/view/id/2805198">link</a>.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Here is a photo of Martin as I saw him at Posada Mimosa almost every day - smiling and enjoying one of his many dogs.... </span></p>
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<p><img src="/images/martin_with_doggie.jpg" alt="martin with doggie" width="651" height="488" /></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></strong></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></strong></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></strong></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">WARNING - GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">These are Martyrs to what Revenge can cause people to do to other people:</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Fotothek_df_ps_0000123_Frauenleichnam_in_einem_Luftschutzkeller.jpg/170px-Fotothek_df_ps_0000123_Frauenleichnam_in_einem_Luftschutzkeller.jpg" alt="" /><img src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRgJNbh19KukXUyZ1zh-t7s0d1w-FAAr12yETAWBLYxQXMuSIX0Jw" alt="Image result for dresden firebombing pictures" /><img src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRkXl2xZpitcN_gkkscbuEQeH8apTsPaE72zJ6wiauEtwU1zJfT" alt="Image result for dresden firebombing pictures" /><img src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ55lXwgvmYxtMFshh8S8jBrG-oyKAEGBPrTwKGFOTMYKRrSYDq" alt="Image result for dresden firebombing pictures" /></span></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p> </p>
|
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">You can watch a You Tube dramatic re-enactment of the Dresden firebombing in this gripping video entitled Dresden - Part 1: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOBCWukvZ8o" target="_blank" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.3299999237061px; line-height: normal;"></a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch">https://www.youtube.com/watch?</a></span><wbr /><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">v=AOBCWukvZ8o</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">Hillary's gracious appreciation and endorsement of this page on behalf of her father Martin:</span></p>
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<div style="line-height: normal; color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.33px; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">Doug, I am speechless by what you have done. I sent your email to all the family and many many friends. It's such a moving tribute to my Dad. I just came back from a three week trip to Germany, lit a candle for my father and brother in the Frauenkirche. Magical. </span></div>
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<div style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">I have posted your link on my Facebook page.</span></div>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">Tessa, Martin's wife, also endorsed the above on behalf of Martin:</span></p>
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">Hello Doug -</span></div>
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;">Thank you so much, it's so beautifully written and a lovely tribute to Martin. Hilary is putting it on Facebook. Are you sending it anywhere else?</span></div>
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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;"><strong>ONE MORE GRAPHIC REMINDER OF THE HORROR INFLICTED ON DRESDEN</strong>:</span></div>
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<td valign="top" >"[Current] Protestantism is a revolution...proclaiming 'the Apostle Paul' at the expense of the Master (Christ)." (Kierkegaard, <em>Journals</em>)</td>
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<div class="moduleS1">
|
||||
<div>
|
||||
<div>
|
||||
<div>
|
||||
<h3>Recommendations</h3>
|
||||
<p><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
|
||||
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
|
||||
<p>None above affiliated with me</p> </div>
|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
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<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #800080;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">How Many Times Does Paul's Epistles Uniquely Quote Jesus?</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); font-family: "times new roman", times; text-align: justify; font-size: 18pt; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">The answer is zero times. Otherwise, Paul repeats once, and maybe three times, the words of Jesus found in either Luke or John. That's the sum total of quotes of Jesus. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); font-family: "times new roman", times; text-align: justify; font-size: 18pt; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">Otherwise Paul in his epistles never says specifically "Jesus" told or revealed something to him. He refers five time in his epistles to the Lord saying something--possibly paraphrasing Original Testament Scripture, but never differentiating this from Yahweh who is equally called Lord--Kyrios- as many as 7000 times in the final Septuagint Greek version of the Original Testament.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">Otherwise, Jesus is at most quoted twice or three times by Paul in his epistles. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">First, clearly, in 1 Corinthians Paul quotes Jesus from the last supper, using Luke's version. Although it is clearly a quote of Jesus, it is certainly not unique. For more on this, see NOTE at end. Hence, if we exclude Paul from canon, we don't lose these words of the Lord Jesus. They are in Luke's Gospel. </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">Second, Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:6 says "for us, there is but<strong style="font-size: large;"> one God, the Father</strong>, from whom all things came and one Lord Jesus Christ," and this is very close to Jesus' prayer to the "Father" in John 17:3, "<span style="color: rgb(73, 74, 68); font-family: "times new roman", times; line-height: 21px;"><strong>And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the <span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 102);">only true God</span>, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." If we exclude Paul from canon, we do not lose 1 Corinthians 8:6 because it, or a very similar statement, is already in John 17:3.</strong></span></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">1 Timothy 5:18 Quotes The Original Testament and possibly Jesus again in Luke.</span></strong></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">A third possible quotation of Jesus by Paul in his epistles is mentioned in Scott Schifferd's FORMATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES blog. It says "Paul quoted Luke 10:7 as 'Scripture' in 1 Timothy 5:18." He adds: "Look again to 1 Timothy 5:18 to see that the 'Scripture' of 1 Timothy 5:18 referred to both Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7." (July 29, 2015)</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">Based upon this, Scott concludes the term "scripture" necessarily refers to Holy Scripture, and thus is a shorthand. However, the word translated as "scripture" merely means "writings," and whether it means more -- like an inspired writing -- requires examination of context.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">For example, the word "writings" (translated as 'Scripture' with a capital S) does in the context of 1 Timothy 5:18 refer to inspired writings. But this is only deducible from the context of a quotation of a known inspired writing. Otherwise, <em><strong>graphe</strong></em> - scripture -- is highly ambiguous, and can refer to non-inspired materials and 'writings' just as easily.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">Let's first look at 1 Timothy 5:18. Here's the NIV:</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">For Scripture says, "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages." (<a href="http://biblehub.com/1_timothy/5-18.htm">1 Tim. 5:18, NIV</a>.) </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">The first quote is clearly from Deuteronomy 25:4 -- "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain."</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">The second does appear to be from Luke 10:7 which reads: "Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house." In Greek the words "for the worker deserves his wages" is ho ergates tou misthou. These are almost the identical words in 1 Timothy 5:18.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">It could also be a paraphrase from the law.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/19-13.htm"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times;">Leviticus 19:13</span></a></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">"'Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. "'Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/24-14.htm"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times;">Deuteronomy 24:14</span></a></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/24-15.htm"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times;">Deuteronomy 24:15</span></a></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.808px; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. [From Cross-references to 1 Tim. 5:18.]</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times; font-size: 18pt;">If you simply read the Law, you would conclude the "worker deserves his wages." Hence, Paul's reference is not clearly from Jesus' words in Luke. Even so, this quote if from Jesus' words is not unique. If we excluded Paul from Holy Scripture, we would not lose these words as they already exist in Luke, and the same thought is in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. We would lose nothing uniquely specifically quoting Jesus if we excluded Paul's epistles from canon.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> END</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large; color: #0000ff;">NOTES: </span></p>
|
||||
<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
|
||||
<h3 style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: "times new roman", times; text-align: justify; font-size: 12pt; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">Communion Liturgy from Luke in Paul's Epistle When A Variant Fixes Error in King James </span></h3>
|
||||
<p><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: large; background-color: #fffefd;"></span></p>
|
||||
<h3 style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">Jesus in the Last Communion in Matthew </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26%3A26-27&version=NIV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">26:26-27</a><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;"> said:</span></span></h3>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: large; background-color: #fffefd;">w<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26%3A26-27&version=NIV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #001320; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">hile they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;"></span></span><span style="color: #001320; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;"> and gave it to his disciples, saying, </span><span style="color: #001320; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">“Take and eat; <strong>this is my body.</strong>”</span></a></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: large; background-color: #fffefd;">Luke fills in a little more detail: </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: large; background-color: #fffefd;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">19 </span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it,</span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;"></span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;"> and gave it to them, saying, </span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;">“This is my body<em><strong> given for you</strong></em>; do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22%3A19&version=NIV" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">22:19</a>.)</span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua", palatino; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">John makes a relevant comment at this point. As we all know, t</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">he Psalmist prophesied not one bone of Jesus' would be broken, which the Gospel of John mentions was fulfilled when the soldiers decided not to break Jesus' legs. See </span><a href="http://bible.cc/john/19-36.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 21px;">John 19:36</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);"> ("These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "</span><em style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 21px;"><strong>Not one of his bones will be broken,</strong></em><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">") </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); font-family: "book antiqua", palatino; text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">However, in one version of Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, it would appear Paul misquotes both Luke and Matthew, and says Jesus' body was "broken" for the apostles. <span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">In 1 Cor. 11:24, Paul in the King James quotes Jesus saying "this is my body</span><strong style="color: #494a44; font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium; line-height: 21px;"> broken </strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 254, 253);">for you." (KJV, Aramaic, King James 2000, American King James, Websters, Weymouth, World English, Young's Literal). </span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, Jesus did not say, and could not possibly have said, as John 19:36 confirms, what Paul per the KJV attributes to Jesus: "This is my body <em><strong>broken</strong></em> for you." </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
|
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: large; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1">So is this Paul's fault, or a transmission problem? </span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1">Many translations do not have "broken" unlike the KJV. See Biblios </span><a href="http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/11-24.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">1 Cor. 11:24</a><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1">. So the following translations only say Paul quotes the liturgy as "</span><strong style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: medium;">my body is for you</strong><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1">" -- NIV, NLT, ESV, NASB, ISV, God's Word, Darby. There are some legitimate variants of 1 Cor. 11:24 that support this: see this </span><a href="http://web.ovc.edu/terry/tc/lay161co.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">list</a><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1">. It explains:</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: large;"><strong style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">TEXT:</strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> "This is my body which is for </span><sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">pl</span></sup><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">you."</span><br style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">EVIDENCE: <span style="color: #ff0000;">p</span></span><sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">46</span></sup><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> S* A B C* 33 1739*</span><br style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">TRANSLATIONS: ASV RSV NASV NIV NEB TEV</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">For example P 46 means Papyrus 46. This papyrus indeed has coverage of 1 Cor. 11. And it dates from 175-225 AD. ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_46" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">Papyrus 46</a>," <em>Wikipedia</em>.) The S* is the oldest complete NT from 340 AD - the Sinaiticus. This gives substantial support for a transmission error, rather than an error by Paul.</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Let's compare this with the sources for "broken" for you:</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><strong style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">NOTES:</strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> "This is my body which is broken for </span><sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">pl</span></sup><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">you."</span></span><br style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">EVIDENCE: S</span><sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">c</sup><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> C</span><sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">3</sup><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> D</span><sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">b,c</sup><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> G K P Psi 81 104 614 630 1241 1739 margin 1881 2495 Byz Lect three lat syr(p,h)</span></span><br style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">TRANSLATIONS: KJV ASVn RSVn NASVn</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The keys to abbreviations such as this are at this <a href="http://web.ovc.edu/terry/tc/layabbre.htm" style="color: #517291; text-decoration: underline;">site.</a> The Sc is a "corrector" of the Sinaiticus, so it comes later than the earlier Sinaiticus upon which the variant above in part relies. The C3 is Ephraemi Rescriptus from the 5th Century. Psi and all numbered manuscripts are from 5th Century forward. Thus, Papyrus 46 must be deemed <strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;">the best and most original, confirmed by the Sinaiticus prior to the corrector version</span></strong>.</span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: large; background-color: #fffefd;">So Paul is not guilty of a contradiction here. It is a transmission error. </span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: medium; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; background-color: #fffefd;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
|
||||
<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: medium; background-color: #fffefd;"></span></p>
|
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<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: medium; background-color: #fffefd;"></span></p>
|
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<p style="font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 15.8079996109009px;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'times new roman', times; text-align: justify; font-size: medium; background-color: #fffefd;"></span></p>
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