Great impossible and possible ideas

”The greatest ideas today are yet impossible.”

 

‘…all things are possible to those who believe.’ Mark 9:23

 

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Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Grote onmogelijke en mogelijke ideeën

What is a Christian?

Lots of people do call themselves Christian but are not really real followers of Christ (what they should be when they call themselves Christian).

Being Christian should entail that the person is a follower of the Christ (Kristos) and would follow his teachings and worship the same God as him. Though in the Christian world we do find the majority worshipping another god than the God of Christ. Christ Jesus, born by the Power of God, was brought up in a very devout family who kept to the Torah and worshipped the Only One True God, the God of Israel, Who is also the God of Abraham.

A true Christian should also keep to that Unseen God and like Jesus should obey His Wishes and Commandments. As a follower of Christ a Christian should make sure to live according the rule of the God of Christ and according the teachings of Jesus Christ. Though in many denominations we see lots of so called believers who not take notion of all those things Jesus and God require from believers in God and from lovers of God. Many keep to the false teaching of the trinity (a three-headed god) and even do not mind having graven images of those gods (a blasphemy and an abomination in the eyes of God)
Lots of those calling themselves Christian also do not share the love of Christ and often are racist and not showing their love for others. Many also do not mind taking up weapons or to show aggressiveness towards others.

A real Christian is some one who really tries to live according the teachings of God and His only begotten beloved son Jesus, and like him shows respect and love to every creation of God (plants, animals and people).

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Additional reading

1. The Nazarene master teacher learning people how they should behave
2. Words to push and pull
3. Atonement And Fellowship 2/8
4. As Christ’s slaves doing the Will of God in gratitude
5. Not withholding the Good News
6. Jehovah’s Witnesses Circuit Assembly and a Pillar to freedom
7. Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
8. Devotees and spotters
9. Concerning the humans who are a warlike species
10. ….a powerful way to put the universe on notice….
11. Days of madness with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils
12. Living lives in total darkness by lack of understanding the times that lie ahead
13. An atoneless religious system or a hope giving religious system
14. Given opportunity to accept Christ as Messiah
15. A House for God in our 21st century
16. Torah hanging on two commandments and focussing on a Mashiach
17. Ambassadors for our faith in Jeshua
18. Biblical Yeshua/ Jesus or Another European Greco- Roman Jesus ??
19. Not being saved by faith in Christ alone
20. Today’s thought “A breach of faith against the LORD” (March 1)
21. Today’s thought “Being made prosperous and numerous on conditions” (May 13)
22. Today’s thought “… with all your heart” (May 09)
23. a Strong Family doesn’t just happen
24. Eagerness to learn and to teach others
25. Division, diversity, unity and connection
26. Jewish and Gentile Disciples
27. Jews and Christians against Messianics and Jeshuaists
28. The attitude of Christians to Jews
29. Working with others behind the scenes
30. The Most Important Point to be a Jeshuaist
31. Christadelphian opposite Christian
32. The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
33. Living stones 5 Abraham’s seed and gentiles
34. Living stones 7 The spiritual house
35. Today’s thought “Forgive … from your heart” (January 16)
36. Memorizing wonderfully 45 Living and bearing fruit by dying

Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation

Today the world seems to be struggling with seeds sown after a horrible experience which brought millions of people to end their life earlier than it should have been.

Nearly hundreds years ago everybody had said “never again”, but less than 30 years loomed the ghost ship already from the waves. soon the European battlefield was again full of blood and tears. this time one tiny man had shouted loud and had made many grand gestures getting the crowd to believe this time it would be different and he would made their nation, their own country, the greatest again and forever the greatest.

The Jews where blamed for all the poverty and misery in the country. They where considered also to be the murderers of Jesus Christ and if Europe was not going to be careful they would conquer Europe.

World War I era US poster by James Montgomery Flagg, 1918, lithograph, color; 56 x 36 cm. Columbia (female allegorical personification of the United States of America) broadcasts seeds in a plowed field. Text:”Sow the Seeds of Victory! Plant and raise your own vegetables”…”Every garden a munition plant”. Urging civilians to raise their own food to free up resources for the war effort. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today there is an other Izegrim who is telling his compatriots they should be aware for a people that supposedly would have conquered Europe already and soon would be conquering the United States of America. The bully, neatly his head being covered with his blonder peruche, wants others to believe he is the clairvoyant who knows what is best for the nation and who is the only one who can make the nation great again. Lots of people have put their hope in him. Worse is that many who voted for him say they are Christians. Though clearly they show not a Christian attitude by liking the use of weapons, killing others and spreading the hate against Jews and Muslims. Those last ones seem to be the cause of all trouble today. They are consider a very dangerous breed of people, worshipping a strange and dangerous god. Those christians mostly worship a false three-headed god, though they claim to be worshipping the Only True God. And there is what the problem of today is…..

In the contemporary world the seed of the adversary of God is sown and germinating. Thought that seed starts seeing that the seed of God, the people who want to worship the Only One True God is starting to shine more. Jews, true Christians (non-trinitarian) and true Muslims are those who follow the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, the Words of Allah, the Most Almighty Elohim Hashem Jehovah. The false Muslims and false Christians see a danger or threat in those lovers of God and try to do everything to bring them in a bad light.

First there are the ones who take Jesus as their god but do not follow the teachings of peace of that master teacher. Rabbi Jeshua was always an ear and a good heart to those who where different than others or who had difficulties. He always was there to come to help them and to be there to defend them who had no voice or did not belong to the main community.

The photo depicts the Sowing the Seeds icon from the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Hajdúdorog, Hungary. It was painted on the end of the 18th century by unknown painter (most probably by Mihály Mankovics). The painting decorates the pulpit of the cathedral. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In our Holy Scriptures we are told that this master teacher told many parables and many of them concerned our faith and our behaviour towards people around us and towards God. We also consider him as the sent one from Allah was not going to keep his mouth shut, but would open it with illustrations so that people would be able to come to see.

“هذا كله كلم به يسوع الجموع بامثال.وبدون مثل لم يكن يكلمهم” (متى 13:34)
“All this Jesus spoke to the crowds in (sayings or stories) parables; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to them,” (Matthew 13:34)

In our Holy Scriptures we are told that this sent one from the Most High Allah, the son of man, is the sower of the fine seed.

“فاجاب وقال لهم.الزارع الزرع الجيد هو ابن الانسان.” (متى 13:37)

“He answered them Hm.alazara, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,” (Matthew 13:37)

Fine seed is naturally very delicate and may (perhaps) be easily damaged. That is the problem with some seeds Jesus could sow on this earth. They might have found Jesus, though not knowing their master or sower very well, they thought they knew him enough to say that they are his. We see lots of people who say they are Christian, which should mean being a follower of Christ Jesus. But what we can see is that they have that son of man made into their god and where even not afraid to make graven images of him, though Allah is very clear that we never should make any graven image of a god nor of Him.

“لا تصنع لك تمثالا منحوتا ولا صورة ما مّما في السماء من فوق وما في الارض من تحت وما في الماء من تحت الارض.” (خروج 20:4)

“”You shall not make for yourselves a graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth:” (Exodus 20:4 )

The One having to be the Only One God should be Allah, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah Who is One and Who is not a man of flesh and blood but an eternal Spirit.

“اسمع يا اسرائيل.الرب الهنا رب واحد.” (تثنية 6:4)

“Hear, Asiraial (Israel): Jehovah is Allah our Lord God; Jehovah is just (the only) one:” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

“انا الرب هذا اسمي ومجدي لا اعطيه لآخر ولا تسبيحي للمنحوتات.” (اشعياء 42:8)

“”I am Magdi Jehovah, that is my name. I will not give him (the Magdi or glory) to time or to another, nor my praise Zbhristi (Haem or glorification) to sculptures or engraved images.” (Isaiah 42:8)

“لا تنطق باسم الرب الهك باطلا لان الرب لا يبرئ من نطق باسمه باطلا.” (خروج 20:7)

“Do not pronounce the name of Jehovah your Allah in vain; for Jehovah will not acquit of His name in vain (or will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain)” (Exodus 20:7)

that is what we can see what happened in this world. Many have taken the Holy Name of Allah and changed it from Jehovah into Jesus and made sculptures, paintings and several objects with drawings of him and his heavenly Father, though this is an abomination in the eyes of that Father of rabbi Jeshua, who is the only One God Spirit.

“الله روح.والذين يسجدون له فبالروح والحق ينبغي ان يسجدوا.” (يوحنا 4:24)

“Allah is spirit, and you should worship Him in spirit and truth.”” (John 4:24)

Instead of worshipping Allah in truth many fake their devotion for god by worshipping not at all or having more interest in (or worship of) money and material possession. That love of possession brings also certain people to use the title of God to bring fear over man and to oppress those around them. Often they use Allah His Words in the wrong way, distorting or twisting them so that they can justify their wrong acts, like attacking other believers and non-believers, humiliating women, selling people, etc.

Brooklyn Museum – The Enemy Sowing Tares – Elihu Vedder – overall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most Christians do not worship Jehovah, the Only One True God of gods, with spirit, but prefer to keep to human dogmas and therefore many became blind for the biblical truth, like we also can see in the Ummah, where several so called believers do not come to read the Holy Scriptures any more but follow just some verses, taken out of context by their teachers, which they follow without comparing their sayings with what is written in the Scriptures. Because so many Muslims and Christians not knowing their Holy Scriptures any more they can be mislead and be driven away from the truth and worse also from God.

Perhaps both Christians and Muslims should come to read Muslim scriptures where is written

And, likewise, their belief in beings or powers that are supposed to have a share in God’s divinity makes [even] the slaying of their children seem goodly to many of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God, thus bringing them to ruin and confusing them in their faith. Yet, unless God had so willed, they would not be doing all this: stand, therefore, aloof from them and all their false imagery!(6:137)

There and then will every human being clearly apprehend what he has done in the past; and all will be brought back unto God, their true Lord Supreme, and all their false imagery will have forsaken them.(10:30)

It is they who have squandered their own selves-for [on the Day of Resurrection] all their false imagery will have forsaken them:(11:21)

Is Then, He who has every living being in His almighty care, [dealing with each] according to what it deserves -[is, then, He like anything else that exists]? And yet, they ascribe to other beings a share in God’s divinity! Say: “Give them any name [you please]: but do you [really think that you could] inform Him of anything on earth that He does not know-or [do you] but play with words?, Nay, goodly seems their false imagery to those who are bent on denying the truth, and so they are turned away from the [right] path: and he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide.(13:33)

And [this retribution will befall all evildoers because] they devise that false imagery of theirs – and all their false imagery is within God’s knowledge. [And never can the blasphemers prevail against the truth – not] even if their false imagery were so (well devised and so powerful] that mountains could be moved thereby.(14:46)

As it is, they ascribe – out of what We provide for them as sustenance – a share unto things of which they know nothing. By God, you shall most certainly be called to account for all your false imagery!(16:56)

And on that Day will they [who had thus been sinning, belatedly] proffer their surrender to God; and all their false imagery will have forsaken them.(16:87)

when he said unto his father and his people, “What are these images to which you are so intensely devoted?”(21:52)

But, then, did those [beings] whom they had chosen to worship as deities beside God, hoping that they would bring them nearer [to Him], help them [in the end]? Nay, they forsook them: for that [alleged divinity] was but an outcome of their self-delusion and all their false imagery.(46:28)

Instead of becoming liberated in Christ they have become slaves of a new religion not afraid to set them up against other religions. In this can be seen the reason why so many can not see what are real Christians or what are real Muslims. True Christians and true Muslims should be bringers of peace. Again they better look at Muslim writings which say

And when Abraham said: “O Lord, make this a city of peace, and give those of its citizens who believe in God and the Last Day fruits for food,” He answered: “To those will I also give a little who believe not, for a time, then drag them to Hell, a dreadful destination!”(2:126)

Except those who take refuge with a people allied to you, or those who, weary of fighting you or their people, come over to you. If God had so willed He would surely have given them power over you, and they would have fought you. If they keep aloof and do not fight, and offer peace, God has left you no reason to fight them.(4:90)

You will also find persons who, while wishing to live in peace with you as well as with their own people, turn to civil war the moment they are called to it. If they do not keep away from you, nor offer you peace nor restrain their hands, seize them and kill them wherever they are. We have given you a clear sanction against them.(4:91)

O believers, when you go out on a journey in the way of God, be discreet and do not say to anyone who greets you in peace: “You are not a believer.” You desire the gain of earthly life, but there are prizes in plenty with God. You were also like him (an unbeliever) in the past, but God has been gracious to you. So be careful and discreet, for God is aware of what you do.(4:94)

Their confidential counsels are seldom for the good, save of those who talk of charity or goodness or peace among men. Whosoever does so for the pleasure of God, We shall give him an ample reward.(4:114)

 

The seeds of Jesus do not have to worry. Because when they truly believe their master teacher they can be sure Allah will guide and protect them.

Through which God will lead those who follow His pleasure to the path of peace, and guide them out of darkness into light by His will, and to the path that is straight.(5:16)

But man has to give something in the place. They should believe. They should believe in God and today they also should believe in the the sent one from God, Ishi (Jeshua or Jesus Christ) and would not mix their faith with that of pagans, or taking part in to pagan feasts like Halloween, Yule, Christmas and Easter e.g. and may not deny the position of each character God placed on this earth.

They alone have peace who believe and do not intermix belief with denial, and are guided on the right path.”(6:82)

For them is an abode of peace with their Lord. He will be their defender as reward for what they did.(6:127)

“الحق الحق اقول لكم ان من يسمع كلامي ويؤمن بالذي ارسلني فله حياة ابدية ولا يأتي الى دينونة بل قد انتقل من الموت الى الحياة.” (يوحنا 5:24)

Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes Him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

Lots of Christians do not believe the One Who sent Jesus and said that man standing in the river Jordan was His only begotten son.

“21  ولما اعتمد جميع الشعب اعتمد يسوع ايضا.واذ كان يصلّي انفتحت السماء 22 ونزل عليه الروح القدس بهيئة جسمية مثل حمامة وكان صوت من السماء قائلا انت ابني الحبيب بك سررت 23 ولما ابتدأ يسوع كان له نحو ثلاثين سنة وهو على ما كان يظن ابن يوسف بن هالي” (لوقا 3:21-23)

“21  Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky opened up, 22 and the Holy Spirit in a bodily form as a dove descended on him; and a voice came out from heaven, saying

“You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”

23 Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, it was thought he being the son of Joseph, bin Hali,” (Luke 3:21-23)

Those Christians who made Jesus into their god also do not believe Allah’s Own Word, who tells mankind about the moment when it was begotten time to have that one promised in the Royal Garden to come to earth.

“ولكن لما جاء ملء الزمان ارسل الله ابنه مولودا من امرأة مولودا تحت الناموس” (غلاطية 4:4)

“But when the fulness of the time had come, Allah sent out his son, born to a woman, born under the law,” (Galatians 4:4)

He knew very well the Law and the Word of God, but the seed of the contemporary world has so much weed between it it nearly becomes suffocated in the field.

Some days after that preaching man told about the weeds, Allah once more declared who this rabbi was.

“وفيما هو يتكلم اذا سحابة نيرة ظللتهم وصوت من السحابة قائلا هذا هو ابني الحبيب الذي به سررت.له اسمعوا.” (متى 17:5)

“While he was speaking, a bright cloud and voice from the cloud overshadowed them, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear him (or listen to him).” (Matthew 17: 5)

Today we have come into an age where we find again people of little faith and people of no faith and being a twisted generation, catching fear because they do not know the Word nor the people of God and how they should unite with all people of God, transferring from here to there (Matthew 17:20; 21:21; Mark 9:31; Luke 9:44).

the weed Atriplex patula

We today must be aware how the adversary is working hard to bring division between man. The adversaries of God sow seeds of weed to make sure many plants will die because the weeds not giving place for them. Please let us therefore listen to the wise words of the sent one from Allah, who explains his story about the seeds and weeds.

“37 فاجاب وقال لهم.الزارع الزرع الجيد هو ابن الانسان. 38 والحقل هو العالم.والزرع الجيد هو بنو الملكوت.والزوان هو بنو الشرير. 39 والعدو الذي زرعه هو ابليس.والحصاد هو انقضاء العالم.والحصادون هم الملائكة. 40 فكما يجمع الزوان ويحرق بالنار هكذا يكون في انقضاء هذا العالم. 41 يرسل ابن الانسان ملائكته فيجمعون من ملكوته جميع المعاثر وفاعلي الاثم. 42 ويطرحونهم في اتون النار.هناك يكون البكاء وصرير الاسنان. 43 حينئذ يضيء الابرار كالشمس في ملكوت ابيهم.من له اذنان للسمع فليسمع 44 ¶ ايضا يشبه ملكوت السموات كنزا مخفى في حقل وجده انسان فاخفاه ومن فرحه مضى وباع كل ما كان له واشترى ذلك الحقل. 45 ايضا يشبه ملكوت السموات انسانا تاجرا يطلب لآلئ حسنة. 46 فلما وجد لؤلؤة واحدة كثيرة الثمن مضى وباع كل ما كان له واشتراها. 47 ايضا يشبه ملكوت السموات شبكة مطروحة في البحر وجامعة من كل نوع. 48 فلما امتلأت اصعدوها على الشاطئ وجلسوا وجمعوا الجياد الى اوعية.واما الاردياء فطرحوها خارجا. 49 هكذا يكون في انقضاء العالم.يخرج الملائكة ويفرزون الاشرار من بين الابرار. 50 ويطرحونهم في اتون النار.هناك يكون البكاء وصرير الاسنان 51 قال لهم يسوع أفهمتم هذا كله.فقالوا نعم يا سيد. 52 فقال لهم.من اجل ذلك كل كاتب متعلم في ملكوت السموات يشبه رجلا رب بيت يخرج من كنزه جددا وعتقاء.” (متى 13:37-52 Arabic)

the weed Urtica dioica, often called common nettle, stinging nettle many of which have many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation when contacted by humans and other animals

“37 He answered them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 44  “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. 45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it. 47 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind, 48 which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away. 49 So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” 51 Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They answered him, “Yes, Lord.” 52 He said to them, “Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.”” (Matthew 13:37-52 WEB)

Those who really love should do their utmost best to come to know that Divine Maker of all things and should try to please Him more than to please man around them. they should be very careful for those people who promise they alone are the one who is able to make their nation great again. they should look at the fruits of such people and check if they are living themselves according to what they are preaching.

We should make ourselves stronger in the faith by regularly reading the Whole Word of God and not to take just a few verses from scripture out of context.

As lovers of God we should also show that we are really willing to be His children, living under His Fatherhood, enjoying the diversity in His family, people from different cultures with different skin-colour, different tongue, with different attitudes, ways of dressing and talking, but all united under His Holy Name.

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Preceding

Seeds to be planted soon

Seeds of promiseSeeds, weeds and kingdoms

Unbelief, faith and mustard seed

Seeds from the world creating division and separation from God

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Additional reading

1. Belonging to or being judged by
2. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
3. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
4. Looking for a biblically sound church
5. Luther on Being a Theologian: Oratio, Meditatio and Tentatio
6. Back from gone #3 Giving worries to God and believing in His promises
7. 2014 Religion
8. Silence, devotion, Salafists, quietists, weaponry, bombings, books, writers and terrorists
9. Not liking your Christians
10. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
11. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
12. Relying on the Love of God
13. Unconditional love

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Further related articles

1. Hitler and the Original Conspiracy Theory
2. Know Your Enemy
3. Nationalists’ approaches to Jews, Israel and Zionism: Complex relationships
4. A former skinhead explains why it’s a mistake for the US to stop targeting right-wing extremists
5. FBI Opens Hate Crime Investigation Into Dozens Of JCC Bomb Threats
6. Netanyahu’s silence on Trump and anti-Semitism
7. French scholar prosecuted for “incitement to racial hatred” for noting the culturally inherited anti-Semitism of French Muslims
8. France’s Jihad against the truth | Yves Mamou
9. Israeli Police Prepare for the Coming of the ‘Messiah’
10. What’s Holding the Arab World Back?
11. Use of the word Pharisee
12. This Man
13. A Christian’s Job Interview
14. God Knew Me When
15. The ungodly
16. Is Trump the Antichrist?
17. What is Dignity?
18. Courage is Believing
19. The Well-Balanced Christian
20. Walls that Divide, Pt. 1
21. Walls that Divide, Pt. 2
22. Our Resolutions or God’s Promises?
23. In the dust of the Rabbi- Day 66
24. Mission Trips
25. Saving Faith is Present Tense and Active – Part 5: He Who Stands Firm to the End Will Be Saved
26. Got Weeds?
27. Parable of the Weeds (sermon)
28. The grass is always greener….
29. June 21, 2016: 5th Tuesday after Pentecost

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Ideas about Religiosity

From the Old French religiosete (late 14th century)  and directly from Late Latin religiositas “religiousness,” from religiosus we got religiosity. In 1795 it came only 0.02% as used word. In 1947 it reached 0.1% and got a peak in 1944-45 from 0.17-021%to decline again until 1959 when it reached a deeper point again of 0.12%. From then onwards it got more used, with a frequency of 0.3% in 1978 and climbing to 0.44 in 1996. In2005 it got a boost and was used 0.62%. After a little dip it got again to 0.74% in 2008.

You can wonder if the word became more popular because the time was so bad that people sought more answers and where looking for meaning in their life, but in a time when more people were religious in a way which seemed exaggerated and insincere.

In the 2010 the word became again more popular to denote the way people were either going to be or not be religious. Having to face times where more people are not so much interested in the existence of a supernatural ruling power, a divine Creator and a controller of the universe, the act of those people became also more in the picture and part of debate. This also because many impeach that religion is the base of the many problems we do face today. Lots of people accuse the religious people of creating a situation of hatred between people. The non-religious people inculpate the believers of the different religious or faith groups this world counts, and that are many.

religions in Europe, map en. See File:Europe religion map.png for details. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we talk about religion we look at one or an other of the various systems of faith and worship based on such belief. As such we are often confronted with the great religions of the world, being Christendom and Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. the persons belonging to one or another religion we do expect to be bounded to the organisations of that religion and to have a religious life according to the rules of that religion.

When we talk about the religiosity today we think of the manner a person has an awakened sense of the elements we encounter in life. This may be concerning a higher unseen controlling power or powers, with the emotion and morality connected therewith. {Chambers 20th Century dictionary, 1972-1977, p.128,1141} In the 1977 reprint of the Chambers dictionary is still looked at religiosity as some bigotry or blind or excessive zeal, especially in religious matters.

Appropriate to or in accordance with the principles of a religion a person might be religious. In Christianity of or relating to a way of life dedicated to religion by the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and defined by a monastic rule. {Collins English Dictionary}

When we talk about the religiosity of some one we think about his religious life or how he is spiritual, holy, sacred, divine, theological, righteous, sectarian, sanctified, doctrinal, devotional, scriptural, devout, believing, godly, committed, practising, faithful, pious, God-fearing, reverent, pure, churchgoing, conscientious, exact, rigid, rigorous, meticulous, scrupulous, fastidious, unerring, unswerving, punctilious. {Collins English Dictionary}

The religious person is some one who is taken by religiosity and beliefs in and worships something or someone, mostly a superhuman controlling power or powers, esp. a personal god or God or gods. The person who is religious wants to come to a religious act or have some religious activity, spending time to religiosity or giving time for his belief or practice, forming part of his or her thought about or worship of a divine being.

he has strong religious convictions

both men were deeply religious, intelligent, and moralistic. {The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, 2009}

Today when we talk about religiosity and a religious person, not many are going to think straight ahead of

belonging or relating to a monastic order or other group of people who are united by their practice of religion: religious houses were built on ancient pagan sites. {The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, 2009}

but are going to think more about the way people are treated or regarded with a devotion and scrupulousness appropriate to worship

I have a religious aversion to reading manuals. {The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, 2009}

The religiosity may take on all sorts of forms, going from the simple worship – the activity of worshipping, to veneration, cultism, also going into the extreme, becoming excessive or irrational devotion to some activity; “made a fetish of cleanliness” or to become a devotion to the doctrine or a cult or to the practices of a cult.

Religiosity mostly has to do with devotion or love, passion, affection, intensity, attachment, zeal, fondness, fervour, adoration, ardour, earnestness, dedication, commitment, loyalty, allegiance, fidelity, adherence, constancy, and faithfulness. It can be seen in the way people act or worship and bring prayers, religious observance, church service, prayer meeting, matins, vespers, divine office.

In its broadest sense today religiosity can be seen as a comprehensive sociological term used to refer to the numerous aspects of religious activity, dedication, and belief (or religious doctrine)

The Gallup Religiosity Index, 2015. (dark color indicates religious, light nonreligious)

Some like to divide religiosity in six dimensions, others from four to twelve components, based on the understanding that there are at least three components to religious behaviour: knowing (cognition in the mind), feeling (affect to the spirit), and doing (behaviour of the body). Though sociologists have differed over the exact number of components of religiosity.

What can be found in lots of studies is when written by atheists the believer is looked at as a stupid person who believes in things unseen. For the reason such a person accepting what is written in the Bible lots of such researchers do find that they can not be very intellectual because many strong believers do not want to accept certain scientific findings. We can assure you that there are also very intelligent people, scientists, medics, lawyers etc. who are very religious.

Also is known that many do not want to show their religiosity in public and today many are even afraid to show their religiosity to others at all, or dare not to bring up religious matters in public but also not between their own friends or in the family.

For the reason to bring religiosity more in the open the Message Board or Internet Forum Christadelphian has been created in August 2016 on the American Yuku servers of Crowdgather, Inc.. By creating such forum the public has the opportunity to bring up questions and members are allowed to edit or delete their own posts. The posts, when there are more, will be contained in threads, where they appear as blocks one after another. The first post starting the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies. The Christadelphian makers of the board are aware that it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed, but they do want to give it a chance.

At the place Christadelpian where many people may exchange ideas easily hopefully many will bring forth some good subjects also. To start off the following opening articles can be found

1. Welcome to Christadelphian
2. Places of interest to get more knowledge about God
3. Places of interest to get more knowledge about God
4. Christadelphian a Christian
5. A god, The God and gods
6. How do you look at religion
7. What or which god are you looking at and going for and who or what do you want to worship
8. Christianity and Religiosity in Europe

 

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Preceding articles

Searching for fulfillment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression

Laboring in the Vineyard or Sitting on the Hillside with Jonah?

 

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Also related

1. A world with or without religion
2. Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
3. Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life
4. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
5. Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual
6. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
7. Looking for True Spirituality 1 Intro
8. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
9. Philosophy hand in hand with spirituality
10. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
11. Points to remember of philosophy versus spirituality and religion
12. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
13. Worship and worshipping
14. a Place to discuss religious matters and Christadelphianism
15. Religious matters
16. Religious people and painful absence of spring of living water
17. Christianity and Religiosity in Europe
18. New Christadelphian forum
19. Finding God amid all the religious externals
20. Problems attracting and maintaining worshippers
21. Heaven and hell still high on the believers list showing a religion gender gap
22. Structuur -structure
23. A visible organisation on earth

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Further reading

1. Religion
2. Religion and ceremonies
3. Ethics and Morals – the Ten Commandments
4. Politics is a funny game.
5. For the little gods’ sake…
6. Consciousness continues to amaze and elude
7. Weather or not.
8. Success
9. Religious matters
10. What comes next?
11. Young immigrants to Canada passionate about spirituality: Todd
12. the primitive as reaction, pt. 2
13. Science doesn’t know it all. Neither does Religion.
14. Cara Wall Scheffler: What anthropology can tell us about the origins of religious behaviour
15. Religious experience: William James + criticisms from Russell
16. Religious experience: Otto and the numinous
17. Religious experience: Ayer
18. Experiencing God
19. Belief in moralistic gods makes people generous—towards coreligionists
20. On Certainty
21. Stop Saying “I Feel Like …” to Spiritualize Your Desires
22. Go Ahead and Ask God for Something Really Small
23. How I Hear God’s Voice

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Related articles

• Head-counting the Christians
• Diversity Is More Than a Buzzword
• India saw religiously motivated killings in 2015: US
• Number Of Atheists Decreasing In India
• Do we need religious education in schools?
• 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – China: Macau
• Is Islam a Religion?
• The Psychology of Ideology and Religion
• Religious Freedom in a Multicultural World
• Looking for writers for two Lifestyle Magazines

Luther’s misunderstanding

In our series looking at the faith of man and what he does with it or what faith should make him doing, it is good to look how some denominations got influenced by certain theologians who interpreted something not exactly in the right way.

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All Christians should come to understand that though we are given the Grace of salvation for free, we shall not be free for doing works according to the faith.

In several denominations of Christendom Paul’s letter to the Romans is frequently used to support the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

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In the articles January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works and Our life depending on faith we tried to show the importance of people having to find the way to God and once they found it how they have to act or react when they do come in the faith for God.

When we look at the many works written in Christendom we also find works which speak about the Sola fide a human doctrine of justification by faith alone. In those clergy works where is asserted that God’s pardon for guilty sinners is granted to and received through faith alone, excluding all “works” there is sand thrown in the eyes of those who look for God and want to serve Him well.

It is not because all mankind would be fallen and sinful, under the curse of God, and incapable of saving itself from God’s wrath and curse. In the previous posting you can see that certain people say God, on the basis of the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ alone (solus Christus), grants sinners judicial pardon, or justification, which is received solely through faith according to those theologians.

For them “Faith” is seen as passive, merely receiving Christ and all his benefits, among which benefits are the active and passive righteousness of Jesus Christ. Christ’s righteousness, according to the followers of “sola fide,” is imputed (or attributed) by God to the believing sinner (as opposed to infused or imparted), so that the divine verdict and pardon of the believing sinner is based not upon anything in the sinner, nor even faith itself, but upon Jesus Christ and his righteousness alone, which are received through faith alone.

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It should be known that in Christendom there are also several believers who are convinced that such a “Justification by faith alone” is not telling the truth to people or at least is only saying half of the matter, because some of them though saying we should not do any work to be saved in other writings do speak about “other graces of salvation” and speak about things believers should take part of , which they call sacraments. They then believe in a series of conceptual steps within the Christian doctrine of salvation which is often called Ordo salutis, (Latin: “order of salvation”).

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De Maria of CatholicBibleTalk shows us here that for him as a Catholic it is clear, from Scripture, that unless someone keeps the Commandments and does the Will of God, he will not be justified.

Having sought God‘s Face, for him it is the believer who first of all had done the work by studying to show himself approved. On the way to coming in the faith the work of prayers is already at that time necessary. We namely have to come to a prayerful relationship with God. Once having come into the faith the believer has to allow God to wash his or her soul with the washing of regeneration and renewal which is Baptism by water and the Holy Spirit.

He says

“we don’t do anything at that moment”

but agrees

“We only believe.”

Forgetting that to believe requires an act of setting our minds on God. Also coming to the baptism the person first of all has to repent, which demands action as well. Further the person has to arrange his or her baptism, which again shall demand some works to be done.

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At our baptism we do have to give ourselves to God Who sees our faith and credits it to us as righteousness and that is why we are called the children of Abraham or Abraham’s seed (Genesis 15:6).

The Catholic writer understands that it was because Abraham obeyed God His Voice, and kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws, all works, that made Him righteous in the eyes of God. Also we, when baptised, shall have to step in the footsteps of patriarch Abraham and have to look for continuing on the Way the Nazarene master teacher Jeshua, Jesus Christ, laid out for us. Then we do have to put on the helmet of salvation.

We have to find ways of Godly understanding by being Faithful to the listening ear.

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De Maria his theory is that the 16th century German friar credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation, simply did not see the Sacramental Teaching which St. Paul was making when he wrote these words. He believes

that when St. Paul said, “we are justified by faith apart from works”, he was describing that justification which occurs in Baptism. But Luther was led astray. And the prophecy of 2 Peter 3:16-17 was fulfilled in him:

In Romans 4 and the Sacraments De Maria continues writing

There was no ministry of reconciliation in the Old Testament. David’s reconciliation was the exception and it was to show the blessedness to come. It was a foreshadowing of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

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Lets not forget that love is a something that needs works. Loving is a verb. We should continually love God, which means we do have to come into an intimate position with God the Father. God also asks us to recognise His sent one, and like He is one with this person, we do have to become one with Jesus Christ.

Christianity is a love relationship and It’s love language is pursuit.  Just like God has pursued us He calls us to live a life in striving to come to know God better and to become like Christ, which shall demand lots of work.

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Preceding:

January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

Our life depending on faith

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Additional writings

1. Looking for a primary cause and a goal that can not offer philosophers existing beliefs
2. Souls and Religions with Nirvana and light
3. Between Alpha and Omega – The plan of creation
4. God is the strength of my heart
5. Creator and Blogger God 7 A Blog of a Book 1 Believing the Blogger
6. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
7. Not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan
8. Finding God amid all the religious externals
9. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
10. People Seeking for God 1 Looking for answers
11. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
12. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
13. People Seeking for God 4 Biblical terms
14. People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life
15. People Seeking for God 6 Strategy
16. People Seeking for God 7 The Lord and lords
17. Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
18. Isaiah 55-56, Revelation 11
19. Al-Fatiha [The Opening] Süra 1: 4-7 Merciful Lord of the Creation to show us the right path
20. Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
21. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
22. Believing in the send one and understanding that one does not live by bread alone
23. Being in tune with God
24. Faithful to the listening ear
25. To find ways of Godly understanding
26. Being Justified by faith
27. Obeying the King
28. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
29. Faith and works
30. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
31. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #16 Benefits of praying

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Find also

1. Romans 4 and the Sacraments
2. January 25 – Clarity
3. Hope is Strength – It Starts with Faith
4. God’s Love Language: Christianity is A Love Relationship & It’s Love Language is Pursuit
5. 21 Day Fast | Day 17- Removing Sneaky Idols & Refocusing Our Hearts

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Related articles

• Christian NFL Player Don Carey Says Muslims Need a Reformation
• Instead of Sanctification: The crossless gospel spirit
• Celebrating the Reformation?
• Faith of the Candidates; Interview w/ Marco Rubio (Part 1)
• Quote of the Day: “Fear is the Loss of Assurance”
• You need God
• Reflections Before Bedtime #52
• Christ as Burnt Offering
• Scripture of the Day, 12/16
• “O Come All Ye Faithful” Christmas Schedule

CatholicBibleTalk

I have a theory about Luther’s misunderstanding of justification, see if it makes any sense to you.

1st: Before the advent of Martin Luther, the Father of the Protestant Revolution, some very prominent and influential Catholics also said that justification was by faith alone.

Basil of Caesarea (329-379) “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord, that Christ has been made by God for us righteousness, wisdom, justification, redemption. This is perfect and pure boasting in God, when one is not proud on account of his own righteousness but knows that he is indeed unworthy of the true righteousness and is (or has been) justified solely by faith in Christ.”

Ambrose (c. 339-97) “Therefore let no one boast of his works, because no one can be justified by his works; but he who is just receives it as a gift, because he is justified by the washing of regeneration. It…

View original post 530 more words

Our life depending on faith

Looking at the Bible reading for January 28

When we look at our bible readings of the day, we do find Genesis 46-47, Psalm 50 and Paul’s letter to the Romans chapter 3-4.

Apostle Paul in the apse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Apostle Paul when he was called Saul had been full of zeal for keeping the law and saw the followers of Christ as appearing to have no respect for keeping the law so he persecuted them – until he was dramatically converted. After his conversion and the maturity gained by the experiences that followed, he wrote his remarkable letter to the Romans, a letter primarily to the Gentiles.

The apostle asks a valid question, which should bring us to wonder what the good might be us of difference between a non believer and a believer doing good works.

People trained in God’s ways

Throughout history we have seen that there have been many people who were so called trained in God’s ways and even got titles of universities, declaring them to be theologians. Lots of people look up at them and think they are the person who best know how everything is about God, gods, religion, man, life and death. Lots of people got frustrated with what they got to know from those scholars  who often said we just had to belief this or that, because it is incomprehensible for a human being to understand. As such lots of human doctrines were introduced in Christendom.

People also got annoyed with certain behaviour of those so called religious men. Some had relationships not only with different wives, but there have also been clerics who had intercourse with children.
On the other hand the world sees lots of unbelievers who are doing very good works and are always ready to help others, plus giving very good examples how we make the best of our life in a good relationship with others.

God not abandoning people

It is true that lots of non-religious people are also good people, but the apostle Paul tells us as it turns out, it makes a lot of difference who is a follower of Christ and a believer in the Only One True God.

In history there have been many people who tried to bring the Word of God to others and make it alive for the future. We had the Jewish scribes who were being put in charge of writing down and caring for God’s revelation, what we call the Holy Scriptures or the Bible. In the course of doing that, when some of those Jews abandoned their post, we can see that God didn’t abandon them.

Throughout the Book of books we can see how God always stayed with His People, even when they did bad things or had moments that they forgot Him. Even the most important of these men of God had one moment of doubt, that he questioned God why He (Jehovah God) had abandoned him (Jesus).

Jesus at one moment also cried to his heavenly Father saying

 Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (Matthew 27:46)

being a call unto God questioning Him why he had forsaken or had deserted the son of man Jeshua (Jesus Christ), who was willing to do God’s Will instead of his own will. (In case Jesus is God he naturally would always have done his own will and could never have left himself.)

Not cancelling out Jehovah his faithfulness

Do you think Jesus and other men of God their faithlessness cancels out Jehovah the Almighty God His faithfulness?

We are told that God keeps his Word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same

“God forbid! Yea, let God be true, though every man a liar. As it is written: “That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.”” (Romans 3:4 KJ21)

We are given God’s Word which stand fast and true and is not given to confuse us or to.  We are given commandments in that book of books and are questioned if we make the law of none effect through faith.

The unbelievers can do good and bad like we too can do a lot of bad. But if our wrongdoing only underlines and confirms God’s right-doing, “shouldn’t we be commended for helping out?” remarks Paul. When having come into the faith we should be willing to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ (a work to be done) and should do our uttermost best to comply not only with his teachings but also with the ordnance of God.

Sayings we are saved and have to do no works

The people who do want us to believe we can do whatever we want because salvation is on us by the blood of Christ, must know that it is not by our bad deeds that God would come out better.  It’s simply perverse to say,

“If my lies serve to show off God’s truth all the more gloriously, why blame me? I’m doing God a favour.”

or to say

“The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let’s just do it!”

That’s pure slander. (Romans 3:7-8)

Same start for every one

It is not because we are Jews, Christians or Muslims that we would be we more excellent than the others and are getting a better break than the others. (Romans 3:9) Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it that there’s nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn; they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.

It may sound harsh, but there is “No one’s living right”.

“9 What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise! For we have before proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 there is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They have all gone from the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”” (Romans 3:9-12 KJ21)

Therefore every day we do have to be careful not to have our throats to be gaping graves,our tongues slick as mud slides. (Romans 3:13) With no tongues to deceit we should try to get others to know Jeshua, Jesus Christ, the son of man and the son of God. In him we did receive salvation, but in him we do have to grow (a work) so that we can run a good race, not for the honour of sinner-of-the-year, or for the one who made the most money on the back of others.

Afraid for those coming in

In our land littered with heartbreak and ruin, many of us do not want to know living with others. They are so afraid of the refugees coming into our nation. Are they afraid of them being able to get others to believe what they believe and to come to the same religion as theirs. Should they than not wonder how it comes that those immigrants not come to be surprised by the faith we are having and that they would become interested in the faith that lives in Europe? We think the greatest problem is that there is not so much faith in God living around in our regions. Most people never give God the time of day. This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else?

For sure it is not our involvement with God’s revelation that will  put us right with God. There are also many unbelievers who write about our God and about religion. There are also people who are against God who try to bring others in doubt by throwing lots of discussions at them.

Should we not more question why there would be a danger of Muslims converting people from here unto the Islamic faith? In case there would be enough people standing strong in their faith we should not worry.

Did Jesus also not give the task to his followers to go out and preach? When Christians would do what Jesus Christ ordered them to do we should have enough preachers witnessing about the works of god and about the real faith we should follow.

Man incapable to govern

Throughout history man has proven to be incapable to come to good governments, or to be able to rule this universe. By the Word of God we are forced to face our complicity in our sins. By all our stupidities we do have to come to see we can only have a good government under the jurisdiction of Christ Jesus.

Because by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified in God His sight (Romans3:20) we should know that for by the Law comes the knowledge of sin and are we given the ways to handle sin. Now we also do not have any excuse because in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about in our Scriptures, has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this.

“20 Therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all those who believe. For there is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:20-23 KJ21)

“30  What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31 but Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.” (Romans 9:30-31 KJ21)

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God sent us His only begotten son and accepted this man’s ransom offering to pay for our sins. did it for us. The action of God, out of sheer generosity, was taken for the recognizance of the humbleness of  the Nazarene Jew who was willing to put his own will aside for complying totally to God’s Will.

A Freebox in Berlin, Germany 2005, serving as a distribution centre for free donated materials, and where the gratis is really for free.

With Jeshua (Jesus Christ) the world has received a pure gift. With God it is not, like we can see so many times today, that there are offers to people where they say it is gratis, but then they still have to pay so much money. By God Gratis does really means for free. We do not have to pay anything for the Gift of Grace. Salvation is given to everybody in the world. But it is given at one point and then we have to continue from there onwards. And that is what a lot of people seem to forget.

The mess we are in & Setting the world in the clear

God by the action taken, or by the work done by His son, got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where God always wanted us to be. In His plan fits a righteous people. Jehovah, the God of gods, did it by means of Jesus Christ. It was God who sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear.

God decided on this course of action in full view of the public — to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. For many that does not seem to be clear, but it’s now — this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

Working at a relationship

When we come to know that Jesus is the Way to God, we do have to respond (an action to be taken or a work to be done). Our response to what God does for us should create our willingness to do the right works to come to a very good relationship with Him. to come to such a good relationship our lives have to get in step with God.

Jehovah God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews and this God of Abraham should be the Allah, Adonai, Elohim or God of Israel and God of all Jews, Christians, Muslims but also of all those who wander in this world without knowing yet what the purpose and the goal of their life is.

The apostle Paul warns the world to know that there is only one God Who has set right all who welcome His action and enter into it, both those who follow the apostle’s religious system and those who have never heard of his and our religion.

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 KJ21)

“in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.” (Ephesians 3:12 KJ21)

“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Galatians 2:16 KJ21)

“And His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” (Acts 3:16 KJ21)

“But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3:22 KJ21)

“23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24 KJ21)

“30 seeing it is one God who shall justify the Circumcision by faith, and Uncircumcision through faith.” (Romans 3:30 KJ21)

Having stressed “the faithfulness of God” (verse 3) and having told that God reacts to what he sees – seeing “faith” and also faithlessness – we should be fully aware that it is important how we act. Our behaviour is an important factor to our faith-life.

Several people are cross with God and left faith because they did not see any difference between them and the unbelievers. Many do say it is not right God also “inflicts” trouble, pain and sorrow to those who believe in Him.

We must not say,

“God is unrighteous to inflict wrath” (verse 5) on the disobedience he sees in his creation.

What God looks to see, Paul says as he higlights the example of Abraham in the fourth chapter, is – faith, genuine belief and trust in God for “faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness” (verse 9) and it will be “counted” to us also.

“Cometh this blessedness then upon the Circumcision only, or upon the Uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.” (Romans 4:9 KJ21)

Statue of Saint Paul at Bab Kisan, Damascus, Syria Français : Statue de Saint-Paul à Bab Kissan, Damas, Syrie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Paul stresses this was “the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe … so that righteousness would be counted to them as well” (verse 11).

We read in Genesis earlier this month all the things Abraham did – through faith. Paul is stressing that

“For the promise that he should be the heir of the world came not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” (Romans 4:13 KJ21)

Acting faithfully toward God in our lives is what matters most of all and Abraham is the key example for us to follow. In the past the Jews had a contract or covenant with God. With Christ there was made a new covenant. In the knowledge that a contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect, we have been offered a much better contract. Yes, we as human beings do need some contract or written rules. As  such those who follow Christ, believing in him, can live with the promise that God made to our forefathers. God’s promise, though, can not be broken. This is why the fulfilment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and His way, and then simply embracing Him and what He does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father — that’s reading the story backwards. He is our faith father. Therefore Paul realized that “the law brings wrath” and

“15 because the law worketh wrath; for where there is no law, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be given by grace to the end that the promise might be made sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Romans 4:15-16 KJ21)

It depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace.

We should recall God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 17:4,5 and his life of faith beginning from when he left Ur. We must each reflect on our own acts of faith, for it is not just something we talk about! What things have we done, and are doing – that show our faith?

Our eternal future “depends on faith”.

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Preceding article: January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

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Please do find also to read:

1. Epicurus’ Problem of Evil
2. Condemnation of the World and Illustration of Justification
3. Elul Observances
4. God’s wrath and sanctification
5. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
6. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
7. Outflow of foundational relationship based on acceptance of Jesus
8. Back from gone #4 Your inner feelings and actions
9. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
10. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
11. Being of good courage running the race
12. A race not to swift, nor a battle to the strong
13. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong
14. To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core
15. Being religious has benefits even in this life
16. Cognizance at the doorstep or at the internet socket
17. Good and bad things in this world
18. Salvation and Righteousness
19. Establish your hearts blameless in holiness
20. Myth 12: The Hyper-Grace Gospel Makes People Lazy
21. Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does
22. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action
23. A Living Faith #6 Sacrifice
24. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
25. Faith and works
26. Not making yourselves abominable
27. The attraction of doing something
28. Re–forming ourselves
29. Humbleness
30. Wired to Connect?
31. Bearing fruit
32. Our stance against certain religions and immigrating people
33. Religion, fundamentalism and murder
34. Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion
35. Daring to speak in multicultural environment
36. As Christ’s slaves doing the Will of God in gratitude
37. 2014 Religion
38. Disobedient man and God’s promises
39. Crisis man needed in this world
40. From pain to purpose
41. Unconditional love
42. Relying on the Love of God
43. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #17 Sorts of prayers
44. God’s forgotten Word 5 Lost Lawbook 4 The ‘Catholic’ church
45. Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
46. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
47. When not seeing or not finding a biblically sound church

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Further reading

1. Faith (Heartfixxer)
2. Embracing the Path
3. To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core (the Inscribed heart)
4. See Other with God’s Eyes
5. Faith is the Key
6. Wear Your Faith on Your Sleeve
7. We Need to Water Our Faith
8. A Date With God
9. Where is the Church that Christ built?
10. Actions are the Megaphone of Words
11. We are justified by faith and works, in a manner of speaking.
12. Luther’s misunderstanding
13. Faith-Rooted Practice – Rev. Dr. King and Prophetic Evangelicalism
14. Declaring what is not as though it is
15. What is Right?
16. Thankful Thursday: God’s Faithfulness
17. Great Faithfulness
18. Grace Makes All The Difference

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Related articles

• Can Faithful Living Exempt Me From Suffering?
• How Apostle Paul distorted biblical view of Torah observance and righteousness
• Rabbi Schochet echoes Paul: dead are free from Law & resurrected born-again Jews live in new reality
• Vatican: Jews don’t need Christ to be saved
• Jews for Jesus Denounces Vatican Statement on Jewish Evangelism
• Daily Devotion – Friday, December 18, 2015
• Serving the Saints
• Love & Leadership
• Beyond the Manger
• 12-16-2015 Whose Denominations Are They?

Responses to Radical Muslims and Radical Christians

Some may think

The world is telling Christians that they must be blindly tolerant of all things or they are haters. {Churches response to Radical Muslims}

The Christians who are asking to be tolerant do not ask to be tolerant to violence. They ask do be concerned about those in need, and they ask to sincerely investigate all things and not to make conclusions too fast, putting everybody on the same line. Like after the Parisian attacks, so many people getting to shout to get all the refugees out and to stop them entering the European Union because they would be bringing Islam over our regions.

Русский: скромная одежда для muslims и non-muslims (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most of the from violence fleeing people are not practising Muslims and they just want to be spared of any fundamentalist teaching reigning over their life. We should not straight ahead think those people would bring radical Muslim teaching to our regions. Even when lots of them may be Muslim it should not frighten us that they would convert people here. If they are able to convert people to Islam others should ask themselves

People may think they don’t have to tolerate everything that crosses their path or that we or others think they should tolerate. {Churches response to Radical Muslims} It is given to everybody in our democratic countries to utter their opinion. We always should make that clear to any body entering our regions and certainly to those who want to live in our regions. Those who come to live in our states should very well know that here there shall have to stay freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Such freedom of speech makes it also possible that there shall be people who take a stand against those teachings they consider false and against tolerances, that plague, divide and destroy the people of God.

Though what we see today is that certain Christians do think that those refugees would come in here in Europe or in other parts of the Northern hemisphere to

divide and destroy the people of God {Churches response to Radical Muslims}

But is that so?

No, it is an idea that many want to pose because they are afraid of their own identity being hurt. In case they would stand strong enough in their shoes they should not worry. Christians should even be joyful because this would give them more opportunities to preach their faith and convert others to their faith. Is it not because so many Christians do not preach any more and are themselves not active in the Witnessing process that they consider those who are preaching as a danger. As such we also find a lot of aversion and opposition against Jehovah Witnesses, Christadelphians, Mormons and other preaching believers.

Christians should know there is a Big Battle coming. They should prepare themselves and their children for it, but also should warn others around them for the dangers that shall come over our world. But they also should know that in the Holy Scriptures is written that one of the signs of the Last Days shall be that religion shall come to rise against religion. Those religious groups fighting against each other should not make us afraid but should make us even more prepared to go out in the world and to preach the Truth. In case our teachings are founded on the Truth, we should not have to worry. We also know that man can kill man but they shall not be able to take man away from God when that man is in God.

The Ethnic composition of Muslims in the United States, according to the United States Department of State based on the publication of Being Muslim in America as of March 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We do know many Americans do think they are the centre of the world and that Islamic leaders saw America as the central power of Christianity. We have no idea where they got that from, but for sure it is true that radical Muslims do consider Christendom (and not Christianity) as their arch-enemy. In case they should know better Christianity than they should be more moderate and recognise that not all Christians do worship a threeheaded god. They should know that there are also many Christians who worship only the One True God, Allah, The Elohim Hashem Jehovah. If they knew their history they should be able to see why Mohammed was the right person in its time on that place, but that throughout history there have always been true worshippers of the Only One True God, the God of Abraham (Ibrahim).

Tom Harkness is right in saying

Everything about the West they view as Christian, all that we find valuable they hate; democracy, transparency, the rule of law, human rights, the separation of religion from governments are all discredited in the eyes of the jihadis (Wayne Grudem; Politics according to the bible). {Churches response to Radical Muslims}

That is today’s biggest problem, that those fundamentalist Muslims are doing exactly the same thing as the fundamentalist Christians from some centuries ago but also from those today.

Certain Christians do want to believe there are some extra-terrestrial demons hovering around, which they call devils, under the leadership of their head-devil Satan who organise a world-war against Jesus. They forget that according to the Holy Scriptures a satan is any adversary, like Peter was called a satan. so they teach people

so that you have a sound response either in your own mind or when people are attempting to discredit the truth that this is a battle between satan and the Jews and satan and Christians. {Churches response to Radical Muslims}

They are right in the fact that it is a satan who goes into battle with the world of God. The adversary of will trample hard. He knows the end shall be coming near and it is high time to go into the counter-attack. Real believers of God have to see that and should recognise the dangers of getting pulled in the trap to act also against the Will of God.

People like Imam Sheikh Muhammad Ayed,  who has told Muslims to use the migrant crisis to breed with European citizens and

‘conquer their countries’.

are the ones who put oil on the fire and spread the lies which are fed with messages from negative reacting Christians and National Socialists.

‘Throughout Europe, all the hearts are enthused with hatred toward Muslims. They wish that we were dead, but they have lost their fertility, so they look for fertility in our midst,’ {Imam tells Muslim migrants to ‘breed children’ with Europeans to ‘conquer their countries’ and vows: ‘We will trample them underfoot, Allah willing’ }

God is a God of love and order. He wants us to feel respect for all creatures, including those who do not love God. We should not kill them but should present them a life full of hope and glory. With our strength of faith we should bring them over the line, getting them to see where the true expectations of God are.

The real reason radical Islamists attack America, may be born out of a want to create an Islamic State and to destroy Jews & Christians, but it is mainly also because they consider the West interfering with their politics and hindering their cause in their own regions, which do not belong to America nor Europe.

It’s important that we understand the background. These attacks are not caused by people experiencing poverty or oppression in poor nations. This was started and is maintained by well-educated upper class, largely college-educated mostly wealthy men. (Wayne Grudem: politics according to the bible) {Churches response to Radical Muslims}

We even should come to see who are really backing ISIS and providing them with the necessary funds to get all that weapon arsenal.

There are apparently as many Christians as Muslims in Lebanon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Please let us always remember

“There are peaceful Muslims in the world that simply want to live their lives just like you and want their children to live peaceful and successful lives. The problem is not the peaceful Muslims but the radical Muslims. There are 1.2 billion Muslims, not all are radical. The radicals are 15-25% according to all intelligence reports around the world. That leaves 75% who are relatively peaceful people.” {Churches response to Radical Muslims}

We should concentrate much more on those peaceful Muslims as well on the peaceful Christians and should react to those Muslims and Christians who want to destabilise the world by their messages of hate and intolerance.

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Preceding articles:

Paris Attack and Ranting

Problematic Or Patriotic? Two Ways To Talk About Muslims

The World Wide Refugee and Migrant Crisis and a possible solution for it

Migration not something to fear

What we don’t say about the refugee crisis?

Social media and asylum seekers

Human tragedy need to be addressed at source

Real progress leaves nobody behind

Spike In Anti-Muslim Attacks Casts Spotlight On Government Policies

Don’t be Muslim

Children of Men

Tolerance Ends When There Is No Tolerance Shown Towards Us

My two cents on the refugee crisis

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Find also to read:

1. Meaning of life
2. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
3. Suffering through the apparent silence of God
4. If you have integrity
5. Integrity of the fellowship
6. More Muslim children than Christian children growing up in our cities
7. Being Charlie 10
8. 2014 Religion: with a.o. Global war against Christians
9. Syrian but also Belgian connection to French attacks
10. Brussels-born Salah Abdeslam key suspect Paris terrorist attacks
11. Paris attacks darkening the world
12. Refugee crisis, terrorist attacks and created fear
13. Massive police operation in northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis
14. French Muslims under attack
15. Americans wrongly informed about situation in Europe
16. Trump brand of migrant demonization #1
17. Trump brand of migrant demonization #2
18. Are people willing to take the responsibility for others
19. Daring to speak in multicultural environment
20. Sharing a common security and a common set of values
21. Faith related boycotts
22. Mocking, Agitation and Religious Persecution
23. If Europe fails on the question of refugees, then it won’t be the Europe we wished for
24. Schengen area and Freedom for Europeans being put to the test as never before
25. Europe’s refugees just follow the ancient routes for the peopling of Europe in the Neolithic
26. American atheists most religiously literate Americans
27. Is Turkey attempting to resurrect the Ottoman Empire
28. To freeze the fighting in Aleppo
29. Is ISIS a product of American in-action or a product of direct action
30. Islamic State forcing the West to provide means for Kurdistan
31. Funding of ISIS
32. ISIL will find no safe haven
33. Wrong choices made to get rid of Assad
34. Cities not under fear but monuments feared
35. Rampaging, demolishing sacred sites and cultural heritage
36. Sharing a common security and a common set of values
37. If you want to go far in life
38. God let my compassionate affection be tolerant and kind

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Further related reading

1. Syrian Tourists
2. Syrian refugees: Nothing “Christian” about Fearing Muslims?
3. Op-Ed: There is no “radical Islam” and there is also no “moderate Islam”
4. The acts of war
5. I.S.? We Haven’t Seen Anything Yet!
6. Radical Muslims and Americans
7. Remembering 9/11…14 Years Later: A United States President Stands Poised to Give Radical Islamists Nuclear Capability
8. The Crusader Rifle
9. Brits in Costa Del Sol, Costa Brava and Costa Blanca now ‘top targets for ISIS attack’
10. ESPN Liberal Logic
11. Muslim Takeover Of Bendigo Must be Halted
12. Egypt by Ramblin’Randy
13. The UN Needs A Boot Up The Backside
14. Violent extremists up to interpretation by homeland security chairman Mike McCaul
15. “Extremists…have given Islam a bad name, but…have no connection with the religion” Really?
16. Does Minnesota House ISIS’ “Farm Team”?
17. ISIS or Daesh
18. Will Bangladesh propaganda help Rohingya Muslims?
19. The Time is Now to Stop Radical Muslims
20. The Third Jihad
21. Glenn Greenwald: Greatest threat to free speech comes not from terrorism, but from those claiming to fight it
22. The argument for deluded losers
23. Oops! Nemtsov killed by radical Muslims, not Putin fans
24. Congress Defies Obama. Warns Iran.
25. The Hidden Menace
26. On Aggression
27. Extremists and Terrorists Miss the Mark
28. Oh Dear God: Copenhagen Shootings
29. Still freedom of speech on Danish TV
30. A special kind of hate
31. A no–go zone For truth
32. Why Would I Distrust Muslims Baroness Warsi?
33. The RCT Talk Show
34. to our 21 Christian Egyptians who fought for their Faith up to their last breath
35. Are Christianity and Capitalism Compatible?
36. Day Six: Hell House

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Related articles

• BOOM: German Town Shows Surefire Way to Keep Muslims Out… This Is BRUTAL
• Muslim Migrants Set Up Camp – Trash Christian Cemetery in Croatia (VIDEO)
• Mandatory Muslim Immigration in the EU
• Statement from the European Union Ambassador on the occasion of Eid Al Ahda.
• Imam In Jerusalem To Europe: Muslim Migrants Will Conquer Your Countries
• Girl In Denmark Watches ISIS Videos, She Then Picks Up A Knife And Stabs Her Mother To Death
• The Church Lady vs. The American Church: Which is more ridiculous?
• Shocking! Muslims March in Denmark, Demand Islamic Rule (VIDEO)
• Mandatory Muslim Immigration in the EU
• VIDEO: Dalai Lama: Don’t reject Muslim refugees

On the Affirmation of Scripture

On the tenth of October 2015 in the United Kingdom there took place a debate on the dwindling numbers of community members.

“Small” and “big” may be relative, but for certain faith groups in Christendom they can not ignore that they are a tiny group. The groups of Christianity who keep to the teachings of Jesus and who believe what he and his Father say are also “small” compared to the mainline churches of Christendom.

The Christadelphians, who are a very small group in Christianity its non-trinitarian groups had all the reason to come together at Dudley college to look at their society.

The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.

recognised Arne Roberts who looked at the community of Dr. John Thomas who inspired many Bible Students from which later came such today better know and much bigger groups like the International Bible Students and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Al over the world we may find big churches and in the United States of America we even can find mega churches. What we can see and hear at those churches and institutions that often they have gone far away from the Biblical Truth.

Many people may think the big churches and those who have the classical church building are the real good churches. On what do they base themselves for making that judgement? Is it really the looks outside that make the Church of God. are those places with shining gold and many pictures and statues the right temples god wanted to have build for Him? And in those huge places is there done a worship of the right god and in the right way, according to God’s Wishes?

Often it is better to be a small church, with people so loving the Word of God that they really spent enough time studying it and living according to it. The only danger with a small church is that with being small there can be a small mindset or that people do not feel enough encouragement and start loosing interest.

A small group (12-15 people) is the perfect environment for people to share needs of being able to talk to people, to share ideas, to feel common ground and to find an intimate environment.  In fact, this is the size of group Jesus himself also used for discipleship and his disciples also came together in small groups at each-others houses. they did not have especially build worship places outside the synagogue. For their bible study and worship of God those who were not a Jew, but followed the teachings of Jesus, gathered regularly in public and private places. They were not looking for big numbers but were happy to meet with like minded followers of Christ.

Let believers always assure that they go hand in hand with each other, looking for the biblical knowledge and wisdom entrusting the elder-ship, leadership or guidance of their church by people who are really founded in the truth, continuing to study that Word of God and putting it in the first place plus knowing where and how to go to.

In that small church may be a strong feeling of togetherness where the leader of the group does not as a dictator but is willing to share his vision and hopes that can inspire and affirm what God is stirring in the hearts of that small community.

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Additional readings

1. a little church
2. Is your church small?
3. The Big Conversation
4. The Big Conversation follow up
5. The Big conversation – Antagonists
6. The Big conversation – Recognition and refocus
7. Having a small church mentality
8. Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
9. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
10. To remove the whitewash of the Jehovah Witnesses as being the only true Bible Students and Bible Researchers
11. Vision blurred by cumulative burden of divisions
12. Not words of any organisation should bind you, but the Word of God
13. Why we do not have our worship-services in a church building
14. Four Pressing Needs in Rural Communities, and How the Church Should Respond

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Further reading

1. What is God’s Will For Your Life?
2. On the Affirmation of Scripture
3. Walking in Total Dependence Upon God
4. Walking With Intentionality
5. Deacon Selection In the Small Church
6. If It’s All About Relationship…
7. Advice to Pastors from Nanny McPhee
8. Just Try a Few Things
9. Seven Critical Factors in Bringing About Change
10. For the Bookshelf: The Apathetic and Bored Church Member
11. A Snapshot of the Church in America
12. Jesus and the Church Growth Gurus
13. What’s in It for Me?
14. What’s my line?
15. A major problem in the church.
16. Overcome division with core values
17. Why Churches Must Plant Churches That Plant Churches (Part II)
18. How do you eat an elephant?
19. “When Faith Goes, All Good Things Go”

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Related articles

• Old Testament Christians
• Pope Francis, American churches, and Palestinian rights
• Local Priest and Pope Share Unique Connection
• Salon: Ann Coulter unleashes her nativist fury on Pope Francis and Catholics: “This is why our founders distrusted Catholics”

The Wittenberg Door

With respect to the authority of Scripture, the greatest challenge facing Bible-believing churches today is not the disbelief aimed at the Bible from outside the faith; nor is it the attack against it from unbelieving theologians cloaked with Christian terminology.

The greatest challenge facing Christians are pulpits where the inerrant Word is wholeheartedly affirmed but routinely side-stepped and ignored. If your preacher is not preaching the text, he is not preaching the Bible, and functionally denies its authority. It does little for the church to affirm the authority of the Scriptures, if the church’s preachers are not shaped by it. If the preachers and elders of the church are not fed on the Word of God, with what do they feed the sheep entrusted to them?

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Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Rom 10:13-15 MKJV  For everyone, “whoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  (14)  How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching?  (15)  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!”

For they who do not believe should come to hear and should receive an opportunity to get to know the grace given to all people. People can only call on the Name of God when they do believe. Only then when we call onto God’s Name, Jehovah, shall we be saved. This is a condition to become saved which too many do forget. Also they who do not believe the Gospel as the record which God has given of his Son are missing a lot, and those who do believe are responsible for that, when they do not make the effort of preaching. But those who go out into the world to tell the Good News are recognised as people doing beautiful work, because how can others hear without preaching? Naturally there can only be preached rightly by those who believe and by those who are sent, showing others their faith and gladly willing to share the Good News they themselves heard and got convinced of.

The apostle turns from the responsibility of the seeker after salvation to emphasize the role that believers are intended to have in God’s plan for preaching the gospel. Calling on the Lord is meaningless apart from some assurance that He is worthy of confidence and trust, that He has something to offer that guilty sinners need. Calling on Him and trust in Him are two sides of the same coin. The verse suggests that calling on the Lord continues to be a mark of the believer, not simply the first step in the direction of establishing relationship to him.

1Co 1:2 MKJV  to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called out with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

One must hear the gospel before a person can be expected either to receive it or reject it. Without people preaching there can be no hearing. Without witnessing there can be no thought or consideration about what could be true or not, or people would not get to know. Certain King James Versions have “without a preacher” – which may be misleading, in that it implies (or it may be inferred there-from) that there is a special office of preacher. This is of course not the case at all: all God’s children are (or should be) preachers!

People do need to hear about Jesus, the son of God. They should come to know what that Nazarene man has done and who his heavenly Father is and for what that eternal Spirit is so important for mankind. Those who do believe should know the importance of their knowledge and out of love for the others they should want others to know that truth as well. When a person believes unto righteousness with the heart he shall be glad to be able to confess with with the mouth unto salvation not being put to shame knowing that when he calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Saint Peter preaching the Gospel in the Catacombs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The apostle Paul rightly observes that it all goes back to the preaching of the gospel, and preachers, those who profess the Word of God, must be sent – both by God and the Christian community at large. It does not have to be special university people, but men and women willing to share the Gospel in Jesus’ name. God’s “normal” way of bringing people to Jesus Christ is through the preaching of the gospel, which has to happen through faithful people who follow the example of Christ Jesus and do what he had demanded his disciples.

God’s cursing or blessing is upon us, also according to our faithfulness in preaching the Word. God has committed unto us, in our ministry, the word of His reconciliation.

2Co 5:17-21 KJV  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  (18)  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;  (19)  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  (20)  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  (21)  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

When we choose to become baptised in the name of Jesus we wanted to become in Messiah reborn, becoming a new creation. From then onwards our shyness in the world should be gone having the old things having passed away. Shyness refers to passivity, emotional arousal, and excessive self-focus in the presence of other people ( Jones, Cheek, and Briggs 1986). It also frequently involves negative self-evaluations, social avoidance, and withdrawal. (International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, 2003). Being reborn we have received a new soul (being) not focusing as such on the self, but on the totality of union in Christ. Arousal and heightened self-consciousness in response to social threat can be put aside when one is confirmed about the truth and its value. The experiences of shyness are often sufficiently unpleasant to lead to withdrawal from or avoidance of many social situations, but they also compound the distress of shyness by distracting from skilled and self-confident social interactions. When a person his faith sits deep in him it will give him enough assurance to conquer that shyness to witness for Christ Jesus and for his heavenly Father, the only One God.

Facing all those new things which are from God we want to share with others that in Jesus Christ the Messiah Jehovah God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them; and He has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us.  We are by the baptism in spirit taken away from the doubt and fear from man and therefore should want to be ambassadors for Messiah, as though God were making His appeal through us.

The apostles and members of the first communities begged the community members on behalf of Messiah, to be reconciled to God and to share the Good News with others.  Though it was not easy, because many had seen what had happened to Christ Jesus, and knew that there were fierce opponents of the teachings of this master teacher. It was the Most High Almighty Elohim Who made the Sent One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. By his offering we are bought and are now facing freedom, if we want. It is not by deeds of righteousness which we had done ourselves, but because of God His mercy. It is by the blessing of Jesus his offering that we can become saved through the mikveh of rebirth and renewing of the Ruach ha-Kodesh,  whom Jehovah abundantly poured out on us through Messiah Jeshua our Saviour, so that being set right by his grace, we might become heirs with the confident hope of eternal life!

Tit 3:5-7 MKJV  not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  (6)  whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  (7)  that being justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The Messiah or Christ was a man who did not want to do his own will but preferred to do only the will of his heavenly Father. He love God’s ecclesia and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. (Ephesians 5:25-26). Like Jesus took care that the dirt of the earth was washed away by the Word of God we also should where we come try to wash away the dirt of this contemporary world.

At baptism the believer becomes a part of Christ’s new “creation” (Ephesians 2:10;  4:23-24; Collosians 3:10). That new creation is so incredible and presents such a magic future we do not want to keep it for ourselves alone. Real believers in Christ do want to become like Christ sharers of the Good News. Being washed… sanctified, we are prepared to do the work for God. It is the will to get to know the Word of God better which should bring us to read it more and to share it with others. It is not be going to a special college reading lots of human writings and philosophies that we shall get more knowledge to bring people to God. God has given everything we need in His Word. All is there in that Book of books, the Bible, God His infallible Word which says all.

Without the faith in Jesus we shall not be able to succeed. We need to have faith in Jesus so that we can call on Jesus. And we need to call on Jesus because calling on Jesus, searching for Jesus, crying out for Jesus is what brings us salvation. Through calling on Jesus, we are saved.
So why do we preach?
So that we may be saved.

We need to be saved from our own captivity. We all need to be set free from something that may keep us away from our loving heavenly Father, the Divine Creator.

The world has to know what God provided. they should come to know that there is a possibility of real peace. But they also should get to know that it will be God Who rules.

Isa 52:7-10 MKJV  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, making peace heard; who brings good news, making salvation heard; who says to Zion, Your God reigns!  (8)  The voice of Your watchmen shall lift up! They lift up the voice together; they sing aloud. For they shall see eye to eye, when Jehovah shall bring again Zion.  (9)  Break out, sing together, waste places of Jerusalem; for Jehovah has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.  (10)  Jehovah has bared His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

As in the time before Christ Jesus it was nice to see the messengers of God bringing good tidings. Now it is our time to bring such good tidings. We have hear them and we should be convinced of the importance of them.

4 days of Evangelism Training in Southern California provided by LivingWaters Ministry. Obeying the great commission of Jesus Christ. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to everyone” Mark 16:15 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Good Tidings publishes peace and brings confirmation about the sent one from God, who is the Messiah and fulfilled his duties here on earth. God reigns and has given Jeshua the authority to prepare His Kingdom and to reign on earth. We are looking for that Kingdom of God and belief that it is a reality which can be there for much more people than it is at the moment. Therefore we should be willing to show the way to Jerusalem, the physical but even more the spiritual Jerusalem. More and more we can see how the Plan of God gets shape and how we come closer to the execution of that Plan.

The freedom that awaits us has to be spoken off. But first we need to liberate us from our own weaknesses, bad things we are burdened with. We must see that we can make ourselves free from the bad things of this world first. There  may be things which are holding us captive. There  may be many things holding onto us.

Andy Burns, who believes the goal of life is to get so close to that light that we are breathing in the light and exhaling it out into the world, writes:

Maybe you’re dealing with a very real kind of captivity like addiction. Maybe you have an addiction to a physical substance-alcohol, drugs, those kinds of things-or maybe you’re addicted to something more abstract-your work, money, maybe you’re addicted to other people’s approval of you. And this addiction controls when you wake up, when you go to sleep, when you eat, where you work, where you go after work, how hard you work. You’re not free.

Or maybe you deal with an intensely personal problem like low self-esteem or self-doubt or depression. And maybe this controls you in ways that surprise you-you want a certain job but you don’t believe you can do it. You want to speak up but you don’t believe in yourself in enough to find the words. You want to get to know someone, but you don’t believe they could ever like you. You’re not free.

Or maybe you deal with some pain in your past. Maybe you’ve been seriously hurt-either physically or emotionally by their words or both. Maybe it was a parent, a friend, a spouse, a child. And maybe this old would is holding you captive, keeping you from enjoying life, making you avoid certain situations and people. You’re not free.

See, I think all need to be freed from something. We all need freedom and transformation in our lives. And according to Paul in our passage, this is the message that preachers are entrusted with. This is the reason we preach here. Preachers preach so that people can hear about Jesus. People need to hear about Jesus so that we may have faith in Jesus. People need to have faith in Jesus so that they can call on Jesus. And people need to call on Jesus so that we may be set free by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the message that we proclaim every week. This is what we all need to hear and what we all need to be reminded of, week in and week out. You can be free in Jesus Christ. {Stuff My Church Does I: Preaching}

People do have to hear about Jesus and each believer in Christ should take care of that. We do have to go out into the world and tell about the marvellous gift we received. We do have to invite others to share with us the grace which has been given to us.

What would it look like if we invited others here to hear the freedom of God proclaimed in the Word of God? What would it look like if we all brought this Word out into our community and saw it as our job to proclaim this freedom that everyone needs to those around us? Just think of the transformation that would happen. I think it would look pretty amazing. {Stuff My Church Does I: Preaching}

Let us all joining and be workers for the Lord, going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to everyone. (Mark 16:15 )

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Preceding articles:

A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world

Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats

It takes years to learn

Believe today and now!

When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation

What’s inside matters..

Not making yourselves abominable

Where are the female writers

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Preaching by example

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

What Should I Preach ?

++

Additional reading:

1. Where is the edge
2. Remember the day
3. Gospel = Good tidings, good news, a good message
4. Counterfeit Gospels
5. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
6. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
7. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
8. Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
9. Hearing words to accept
10. Atonement And Fellowship 2/8
11. Missional hermeneutics 4/5
12. Missional hermeneutics 5/5
13. The Right One to follow and to worship
14. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
15. Hope by faith and free gift
16. Showing by the scriptures that …
17. Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #3 as a Christian
18. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
19. Establish your hearts blameless in holiness
20. Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
21. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
22. Breathing to teach
23. 2013 Lifestyle, religiously and spiritually
24. Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review
25. Stepping Toes 2014 in review
26. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
27. A prophet to restore
28. Imitate prophets and Paul
29. Oratory Style
30. Counting sands and stars
31. Which Christians Actually Evangelize
32. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
33. Bringing Good News into the world
34. Intentions of an Ecclesia
35. Holland Week of billing
36. Faith and trial
37. Faith a commitment to the promises of Christ and to to the demands of Christ
38. How should we preach?
39. The Rapture Wars
40. Not many coming out with their community name
41. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
42. Jehovah can make him stand
43. Our openness to being approachable
44. Different approach in organisation of services #3
45. Glory of God appearing in our character
46. A Society pleading poverty
47. Good or bad preacher
48. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray
49. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
50. Rebirth and belonging to a church
51. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform
52. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships

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Also of interest

• 90 Days With Yeshua- Day 66: Reconciling the Banished Heart
• His name…
• Why I Don’t Celebrate Easter (and still love God… and still believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah)
• The Lie That Made God Nameless
• Don’t Be Ashamed
• God Demands a Response to Jesus
• May 1: Does Your Life Bring Glory to God?
• Past, Present and Future of Salvation, Today’s Study of Romans 5
• Make your faith work
• “I Bring You Good Tidings Of Great Joy!”
• Trying to Make the Good News Better
• Romans 1:9-14 Questions (Good News Study)
• A Story for the Ages
• Romans 8:28
• A Personal Example Of Hope Fulfilled
• Praise and Worship to God Almighty in Any Language
•  Do You Who You Are? It is Based on the Word of God and Nothing Else.
•  Forget Public Opinion…Keep Your Eyes on God’s Opinion of You.
• The Only Place to Go When Life Gets Tough
• SOM: Blessed are the Pure in Heart
• So, You Think You Can Preach? Sigh . . .
• Jack Hyles Sermon: Fighting the Wrong War
• Preachers are held to a higher standard
• The time for delay is over
• A Better Message; A Better Messenger
• Acts 24 Reading Through the NT 2015
• What Do We Have To Sing About?
• Laboring in the Vineyard or Sitting on the Hillside with Jonah?
• The Spread of the Gospel
• Is Evangelism Dead?
• The Good News Message Of Jesus Christ
• If you got fuel, and you got fire, something’s gotta happen!
• The Smallest of All

Related articles

• I said “I do,” and received the gift of His Holy Spirit. We drank from the cup of the covenant, and then He gave me His name – (de9k2.wordpress.com)
• True Believers Are Completely Associated With Christ (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
• Listen: The Hopeful Christian in Hopeless Times (Pilgrim’s Progress According to the Bible #47 with Daniel Whyte III) (blackchristiannews.com)
• Scripture Verse Of The Week ‘Galatians 3 Verse 26″ (mylordmyfriend.com)
• A Christian Defined (butchdean.wordpress.com)
• The Truth And Nothing But The Truth… (thetruelight2014.wordpress.com)
• Mechanisms of the Spirit (brokenbelievers.com)
• ” The Fire Of The Word “ (stateofglobe.com)
• Your Word for This Day: “Glory Revealed” (thotam.com)
• Word of the Week: Romans 1 (NLT) (faithtemplechurch.wordpress.com)

To find ways of Godly understanding

Chad Graham of Onetheology.com is not affiliated with any religious organization, denomination, or church. He thinks

pastors have a responsibility, just as doctors and mechanics do, to become experts in their field for the benefit of society and the expansion of the kingdom of God. {Pulpit Authority}

In his article Pulpit Authority he looks at our world where people try to find specialists in different fields. For him it seems theology, doctrine, or philosophy are essential parts of a church community. It looks like a church cannot exist for him without such leaders who have gone to colleges where they were trained to become specialists in theology, doctrine, and/or philosophy.

He also gives the impression that people are not able to get authority without such an education. Though he forgets for the Word of God, they should not so much receive their education from man but more from God Himself. It seems that a lot of religious leaders, pastors and priests exclude God Himself from the educational field. Too many forget that it is the Word of God as given to mankind in the Holy Scriptures which can educate and edify man. Real knowledge about the True God can come straight ahead from the Bible itself. We do not need lots of theological works to give us an idea about Whom God is and what He has done. All is written down in the Bible. That Book of books is sufficient enough. though we do agree other books may help further to give more insight or to make the way of understanding shorter.

Also when we have several believers it is best that they do come together at regular times. We may not forget one of the tasks Jesus had given his followers was to come together, to  assemble or to gather with like minded, at regular intervals. The followers of Christ had to become part of the Body of Christ and should find unity in that body (the Church). Organising such a system or community demands work and organisation itself. Wherefore certain people can take charge to organise those meetings and to make the arrangements to keep that community of believers alive. Pastors or elders may well be the persons to do such a thing.

Pastors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Church needs pastors and leaders who wield their pulpit with authority. {Pulpit Authority}

writes Chad Graham, who also finds that

We need pastors who see their lack of knowledge and work hard to remedy it. {Pulpit Authority}

For him it looks like everything in the church-community turns around a or the Sunday service.

Next Sunday is right around the corner and congregations will show up to hear their beloved pastor deliver his sermon—with authority. {Pulpit Authority}

He does know that reason is not necessary for, or is even opposed to, faith.

However, this position will be showed to be false and the enterprise of apologetics shown to be biblical and worthwhile through the survey of the theological justification for it. {Is Apologetics Biblical?}

It is not because the Elohim frequently throughout the Old Testament got His prophets use rational arguments and verifiable evidence to justify their beliefs in God, that today we do need people to show up arguments ,by having full proof of they being educated by a college enabling them to reason about those matters.  Those prophets in the past, not all, went to a high school (universities did not exist yet). God also used non-educated people to go out and to throw out the fishnet for man. Jesus his disciples were not all doctors in medicine like Luke, or doctors in philosophy, nor where the apostles or preachers learned scholars like Paul, but were also ordinary labourers, men and women who used their hands to earn their living.

The writer seems to overlook what he himself quotes:

God, speaking through His prophet Isaiah, said,

“’Come now, and let us reason together’” (Isaiah 1:18). {Is Apologetics Biblical?}

Clearly it was the Most High who invited man to reason with Him. Together they had to plan things. Today it is not different. We too, ourselves have to reason with God. We ourselves have to go into conversation with God. We do not need priests any more, other than the high priest Jeshua (Jesus Christ).

The Supreme Being was,

and is, not opposed to reason when it comes to God, the truth, and the Bible. It is even possible that the account in Genesis 1 of creation was written as an apologetic against the mythical creation stories of other cultures in the Near East. {Is Apologetics Biblical?}

As written already in earlier writings, each individual is created in the image of God and has some inner feeling to look for his own being and for that Divine Creator Who made it possible to be, without Him “The I am Who Is the Being” there is no life possible. Chad Graham knows what we all should come to know, that

The stars, oceans, mountains, and planets were not gods nor were they controlled by gods. Rather, the one true God, Yahweh, brought those things, and everything, into existence and continues to sustain them in their existence. This latter element is a testament to the fact that God exists and has a plan and purpose for creation. {Is Apologetics Biblical?}

“The Old Testament does not often dwell on why we need to do apologetics, but rather it simply sets out its apologias for those with eyes to see. {Philip Johnson, Apologetics, Mission, and New Religious Movements: A Holistic Approach. electronic edition (Salt Lake City, UT: Sacred Tribes Academic Press, 2010), 125-26.}

It is handy and best to have some one to encourage people in the community of faith to engage in spiritual warfare and intellectually struggle for religious truth. But it surely do not all have to be people who had a university degree in theology. It is not to have much knowledge about the different gods and about different human theories about those gods and forms of worshipping. We do need people leading a congregation who have sufficient knowledge and belief in and about the Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah. Other gods are not really of any importance. Scriptural knowledge must lead in the forefront and not a knowledge about all sorts of human fantasies and human writings around godheads.

From the evidence in the Old and New Testaments, the examples of Jesus and His apostles, and God’s character in wanting Himself to be made known, there is much theological justification for Christian apologetics. Thus, fideism and any other argument against apologetics fall flat. Rather, it is shown to be a duty of the Christian to “contend for the faith” and “give a defense.” And it is also shown to be useful in evangelism since many biblical accounts record people being saved after hearing a reasoned account of the gospel. {Is Apologetics Biblical?}

That reasonable account of the gospel is best given by some one who truly believes and lives according to that faith in the gospel, being the Word of God. We can find many priests and pastors who earn their living by ‘holding church’, but do not really belief in God and some even not in Jesus (the son of God). Also we may find lots of priests and pastors who are as weak as any other man, also elders, who are not able to live up to the faith, Christ and God requires from godly man. The last few years lots of scandals came in the news and many priests, pastors and so called educated theologians became defiled by atrocious things they had done. Church can do without them. Church can better use people who really belief in what they preach and do what they demand from others to do.

In the world of theology we can find lots of different writings bringing words against each other, words for sure which could potentially spark a lot of controversy, but worse, also lots of words which could bring people further away from Biblical truth.

Some theologians do know and

oftentimes think what seminary enrollment would look like if they pose a picture of Dr. King dead on a balcony on their fliers. What if they made a banner of Bonhoeffer hanging from the gallows? What if they Really showed what happened to Paul, Peter, James, and our Lord? What would enrollment look like if they showed us what would happen if we truly allowed our academics to be the impetus for our actions?

They know exactly what would happen.

That’s why our brochures are filled kids playing ping-pong. {The Subversive Scholar: The Danger of Being a Theologian in the 21st Century}

Theology without spirituality is a sterile academic exercise. Lots of countries do have universities offering courses in theology, where more time is spend on human writings about philosophy and theology than on the study of the Holy Scriptures themselves. The spiritual factor is often missed out and mostly the courses are given from the only point of view to be taken, that of the own denomination. As such in Belgium most Christian universities are Roman Catholic and offer theology to form people thinking the Roman Catholic way. In Leuven there is also an opening for protestant thinking, but also there only one way or protestantism is allowed to be the backbone to succeed end of year tests.

Street pastors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is not so much the words of human beings we do have to study, but we should make sure that we come to know what is written in the Bible, God’s infallible Word and take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Elohim commanded to God’s people. If we want to belong to God’s people we should live up to it and love the Adonai, Almighty God and worship Him as our only One God, walking in all His ways, keeping His commandments. It is not required from any person to be a follower of any other man than Christ Jesus. He is the cornerstone of the church and not a theologian or some one who can proof that he has received a degree in theological studies. We have to follow Christ Jesus and to hold fast to his heavenly Father, Jehovah God. We do not have to serve churches of man, but be part of the Body of Christ serving the only One Eternal God with all our heart and with all our soul.

We should remember Joshua who gave the departing ones from Egypt a word of exhortation,

Jos 22:5 RNKJV  But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of YHWH charged you, to love YHWH your Elohim, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

The writer of etsop95.wordpress.com remarks

You will note in this word from Joshua two important ideas. First, the Israelites were to pay attention to the Lord and do exactly what He said. Second, they were to have their motivation (love) properly in place. This is the idea behind what some people disparagingly call “pattern theology.” Those who do so speak about that which the Lord set in place! {The Pattern}

When people do find God and decide to become baptised, receiving a “new birth”, we and theologians may not forget that it is the work of God and not of us, elder or theologians

since one can’t “join” the family of God (a work of man, presumably), it is a work of God when one is “born” into the family of God. {The New Birth (2)}

Portrait of a pastor at the age of 35. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Too many people stay in the tradition of their family and keep to the faith-group they were born into, though they may not believe or not practice their views. Real faith should come from own choices being made by adult thinking and wise decision.

It is not the result of parental descent, of one’s own willpower, or by “any of man’s religious creeds, systems, or ceremonies.” The new birth is of God; it is a miracle and only God can perform it. {The New Birth (2)}

It is by allowing the Power of God come into our body that our soul (our being) can be transformed. It is the individual who has to make the right decision and allowing God to work in him or her. Only then a spiritual birth, not a miraculous one, can take place.

Nothing in nature has been suspended for one to be “born again.” {The New Birth (2)}

It is when one hears God, and is prepared to do what He wants form His creation that one can become whitewashed and be baptised by the Spirit. Those receiving the Spirit of God than can take up the tasks Jesus has given his disciples and go out to the world, to others, so that they too may find God and convert to the true faith.

Without the foundation in place the strength of a local congregation is only perceived (imagined), not real. {Strength in the Local Church}

It is not necessary by an education institute that we shall come to the God of gods. All Christians should recognise that it is Jesus is who is the way. The Bible tells us even more, that he is the truth, and he is the life. Not the theologians are going to be able to give us life.

Thus, if anyone would know of truth, if anyone would know the way, if anyone would enjoy life, then one must go through Jesus.{Strength in the Local Church}

Furthermore, Jesus said,

“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46)

We should believe what Jesus says and not so much what theologians say, certainly not when in contradict with what Jesus says. so, when we go to a church where things are preached which contradict Bible sayings we should sincerely reconsider what we want to do and where we want to stay. Do we want to follow human doctrines or Biblical doctrines?

We should look at those theologians and question their thoughts and remember what some students could say about their college

With so many of our finest finishing up at denominational institutions, however, breathing the air of seminaries and schools of theology and salivating at the feet of theologians, we’ve lost our mettle against the idea of theology. {Harding University, twice}

As members of the Body of Christ we never may forget that in the church “educated” men also make mistakes.

There are numerous instances when you have two highly degreed men on the opposite sides of an issue. Some do not have an understanding of the implications of certain “facts” that they read. For example, if someone says

“Scholars believe that Mark was written before the other gospels.”

Would we question that? Is it even important? Some may teach that Mark was written first and have no other implication in mind; however, there is a large group of religious scholars that do not respect the inspiration of the Bible and the dates of the completion of the gospel is one of their places of attack.{Systematic Theology, Rex A. Turner, Sr.}

Too often in theology the focus is not on the subject we as members of the Body of Christ should worry about. It does not matter when and by whom a certain book is written. We do need to know the content and where to look for. The order in which the gospels were written is not the issue per se. What matters most is what is written between the lines and not a Pharisaical theological explanation and historical facts. Historical facts may help to place everything and to see the truth of it, but are not the main issue.

G.C. Berkouwer said:

“We live in a time when even theology is exploding with new and revolutionary problems. There is a danger that the serious student will be so impressed by all the problems in theology that he will circle all certainties by a ring of questions. When this happens, an inverse Pharisaism sets in. The doubting student says:

I thank thee, Lord, that I am not as certain as those naïve people. Let Luther say it again: Spiritus Sactus non est scepticus. Indeed, the Spirit is not a skeptic.” {Bales: certainty is not Pharisaism}

Example of appendix from New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures, study edition (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the ecclesia, our Christian community, house church or church-hall or other church-building, we can come together, meeting with brothers and sisters in Christ, having elders, pastors or priest, non-educated and educated people, all together in humbleness wanting to share the same gospel. In that gathered community, the parish, it is not so much the teaching of a theologian, but the teaching of the Spirit which will unsettle false positions and false attitudes,

but it unsettles them by means of truth and not by means of relativism.  {Bales: certainty is not Pharisaism}

It are all members of the ecclesia who have to work together and to share ideas together, not one thinking the other better or worse to give gospel messages. All should follow the task given by Jesus to explain to the lost who the people of God are and why we have to make the right choice to be distinct from the false religions that exist, including those that call themselves Christians but are not, fail to do their duty of proclaiming the gospel of Christ or the gospel of salvation and of the Kingdom of God.

We do not have to have a special platform or pulpit and especially trained people as the only speakers in our community. All people do have to have their ‘input.’ all have to make an effort to help each other to grow in the faith. All have to help the ecclesia to grow and have to make sure that the Body of Christ can continue to grow.

Lets make work of it!

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Preceding articles:

Living in the Wilderness

Getting out of the dark corners of this world

An uncovering book to explore

May we have doubts

Passover and Liberation Theology

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

In Defense of the truth

Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats

It takes years to learn

Believe today and now!

When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation

What’s inside matters..

Not making yourselves abominable

Where are the female writers

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

What Should I Preach ?

Preaching Christ Is Not Enough

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

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Further reading

1. The gods or mighty ones
2. Jehovah God Almighty – greater than all gods
3. People Seeking for God 6 Strategy
4. God giving signs and producing wonders
5. Elohim, Mar-Yah showing His wonders
6. Necessity of a revelation of creation 12 Words assembled for wisdom and instruction
7. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
8. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
9. Church has to grow through witness, not by proselytism
10. Which Christian sect is the only true Christian church?
11. Not everyone in the churches of Christ are “ungodly”
12. Looking for True Spirituality 1 Intro
13. Why think there is a God (4): And the Rest …
14. The Presence of God
15. By temptations, by signs, and by wonders we can see the Works of God
16. Bible, best Book of books to get to know the truth
17. The importance of Reading the Scriptures
18. Bible God’s Word – to edify
19. Looking for wisdom not departing from God’s Word
20. Bible in the first place #3/3
21. The holy spirit will bring back to your minds all the things told
22. True God giving His Word for getting wisdom
23. Words to inspire and to give wisdom
24. Eternal Word that tells everything
25. Bric-a-brac of the Bible
26. We should use the Bible every day
27. Feed Your Faith Daily
28. God’s wrath and sanctification
29. Bible containing scientific information
30. The mythical conflict of science and Scripture (2)
31. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
32. Atonement And Fellowship 1/8
33. How Many were Bought
34. Genuine Christians content with going through motions of ritualistic religion
35. Approachers of ideas around gods, philosophers and theologians
36. An anarchistic reading of the Bible—(1) Approaching the Bible
37. An anarchistic reading of the Bible (2)—Creation and what follows
38. Van Til’s An Introduction To Systematic Theology
39. Van Til interacting with Bavinck and Calvin on Natural Theology
40. Christianity without the Trinity
41. Position of the Bible researcher
42. Missional hermeneutics 1/5
43. Missional hermeneutics 5/5
44. Epicurus’ Problem of Evil
45. Christendom Astray The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
46. Catholicism, Anabaptism and Crisis of Christianity
47. Some one or something to fear #3 Cases, folks and outing
48. Theology without spirituality sterile academic exercise
49. Myth 12: The Hyper-Grace Gospel Makes People Lazy
50. Pulpit reserved for the pastor
51. May the Lord direct your hearts to …
52. Victory in rebirth
53. Rebirth and belonging to a church
54. Parish, local church community – Parochie, plaatselijke kerkgemeenschap
55. Intentions of an Ecclesia
56. Congregate, to gather, to meet
57. Meeting – Vergadering
58. Contribution – Contributie, bijdrage
59. Faith is a pipeline
60. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
61. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #17 Sorts of prayers
62. Being Missional
63. Missionary action paradigm for all endeavours of the church
64. Theologians and a promised Spirit to enlighten us
65. No other god besides Jehovah who gives all explanation
66. Politics and power first priority #2
67. Denominationalism exists because?
68. Belonging to or being judged by
69. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
70. Good or bad preacher
71. What Should I Preach ?
72. Determined To Stick With Truth
73. Oratory Style
74. 2013 Lifestyle, religiously and spiritualy

+++

Continued reading:

• Would You Speak?
• The Pattern
• The Setting of the Mind
• There are no members of the church
• Systematic Theology, Rex A. Turner, Sr.
• How to be sure your baptism is valid
• April 19 Poem: Together We Become
• Preaching the kingdom, would Paul have spoken of the church?
• Losing the kingdom of God
• A Mistake in Interpretation
• A Word To The Wise

+++

 

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