Tag Archives: Christianity

by Guestspeaker | 2023/03/01 · 2:34 pm

Preachers belonging to the Whore of Babylon calling Judeo-Christians the anti-Christ

Preachers giving false ideas

On the net, we do find lots of people who claim to be Christian but belong to the Whore of Babylon, according to the Scriptures.

Fritz Berggren writes about the real Bride and a False Bride (the Great Whore).

Too many “Christians” — Judeo-Christians —have joined themselves to the wrong body.Like Eve, they are deceived. {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

The writer of the site Christian Nations notices

This is the False Wife, the Whore of Babylon who believes she cannot be touched and falsely claims to be the Bride, the Chosen people, when in fact she is the whore who sits on many waters (is in many nations) {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

When we look around us, everywhere we can see and hear people who claim to be Christian, but who do not follow the teachings of Christ Jesus and do not worship the God of Jesus, but have made Jesus and other human beings in their gods.

For him

The False Wife is like those call call themselves Jews, but are not, and are rather of the synagogue of Satan. {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

by which we do hope he sees those Christians who are not Jews but call themselves Messianic, though do not worship the God of the Messiah, nor God of the Jews, because those Messianics worship the Trinity. We have the impression Berggren does not see the difference between the Messianic Gentiles, Trinitarians who call themselves Messianics, Jews who call themselves Messianics, Jews for Jesus and Jeshuaists.

On the other hand, we do hope he does not have it about the Messianic Jews who do not adhere the false doctrine of the Trinity or does not point the finger to the Jeshuaist Jews, who are Jews who accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

Strangely he writes

the Great Whore of Babylon, the harlot, the antiChrist, those who murdered Jesus Christ

as if it were the Jews who killed the Jew, Jesus.

and those who persecute His Church, those who call themselves Jews (but lie) are all manifestations of their true father Satan, who was a liar and deceiver from the Beginning. {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

Giving with that last bit the impression he really has it about the Jews who came to accept Jesus as their saviour. He seems to live in the same sort of groups which are indentified by the Bible messages as the Whore of Babylon, like the Roman Catholic Church.

We are also living in a time the Bible spoke about, when we would come to see a drying up of support for Christendom and/or Christianity, along with other religions, in our day.

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” (Re 16:12 KJ21)

“And he saith unto me, “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues.” (Re 17:15 KJ21)

The King of the North or Gog has started the invasion of Ukraine. But the Scriptures also foresaw that some would abandon false religion not merely because of dissatisfaction or disillusionment but because of a positive purpose. Them leaving the main churches let those who belong to the Whore being angrier. The of away church members makes those churches rise and go even more against those who worship the True God. The Bible prophetically urges:

“Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins.” (Revelation 18:4)

Getting out of “her” refers to the Biblical symbolic religious whore, “Babylon the Great,” which embraces all the religions of the world, including those of modern Christendom. The “my people” are sincere seekers of truth who leave Babylon the Great because they want to serve God in the way Jesus taught. Christendom has strayed so far from true Christianity that sincere people must get out in order to serve God acceptably.

Though in Fritz Berggren his introduction page the author of that blog seems to be an American who has everything against what smells like a social entourage, or the friendship and peace Christ taught. As such, he considers Marxism, socialism, social justice progressivism to be more than a faith. He writes

it is a hard core religion; it demands total, faith, submission and obedience. It is worse than wrong — it is evil. It dehumanizes those within it. {About}

clearly not seeing that the Nazarene Jesus was a communist avant la lettre.

We do not have any idea where he gets it from that

The Left has a faith. Part of their faith is to deny that it is a faith. They claim their thoughts are “scientific,” and based on “material” facts. But it is neither scientific nor materialist except when it is convenient for them. {About}

That saying betrays his conservative fundamentalist beliefs that give no room for the social attitudes Jesus observed. Politics are not a faith or religion. There might be political parties that demand total, faith, submission and obedience, but that is not so by Marxists or several leftish groups. That is why there is so much variety in Left Wing groups.

He does not explain why his argument would be right, when he consider such people and their believes

worse than wrong — it is evil. It dehumanizes those within it. {About}

That Marxists would dehumanise people is just the opposite what they do. For a Marxist has the person to come in the first place, and not the material, like we see happening so much by the Capitalists.

We notice that in the United States of America there are a lot of very conservative Christians who hate everything that brings something social to the foreground. They do not want to share anything with others. Unlike a Christian should be open to help others, they are not willing to pay for the sick and the poor. Christians who dare to ask to be more social, are then called ‘Communist’ and shunned, being seen as the anti-Christ or devil.

It looks like the writer of the above-mentioned blog wants to see bloodshed, instead, like any Christian should do, aiming for peace, and avoiding bloodshed. But he writes

Blood is primary. Without blood there is no present, past or future. There are no ancestors, no self, no progeny. {About}

For him, the left being against bloodshed and against killing people, even when they have murdered someone, makes him say

The goal of the Left is to destroy blood and faith so that (Marxist) religion alone becomes master and enslaver of all. {About}

which is strange, because most left people want nobody to be a slave of one another. The Communists and Marxists as well as the Socialists are continuously fighting against modern slavery. They are aiming for equality under all people, no matter what sort of culture, race, colour or sex. Fritz Berggren not seeing this, probably because he is so breath in the American Capitalist culture he is blind for reality and probably places himself before all others, calling on the so-called amendments and free rights, not willing to give freedom to others (like asylum seekers, handicapped etc.). The American healthcare system, and how Trumpists and American evangelists are against ObamaCare and other social measures, says it all

He wonders

Why do many Christian hide their name and face on social media? {Anonymity and the Christian}

The problem is there are many name-Christians, people who say they are Christian, but often do not believe in God or have Jesus as their god. It are people who prefer to walk after the flesh instead after the spirit. The majority who call themselves Christian are really not worthy partakers of the Body of Christ. It is mostly people who do not let themselves be guided by the Hand of God, nor by the Word of God, but stick to the human traditions of Church fathers and continued false teachings. They forget that the righteous man runs into the Tower of God and follows the Jewish master teacher Jeshua ben Josef, Jesus Christ from Nazareth.is safe. It are people who might be thirsty but do not go to the Spring of living water.

The blog writer thinks

Nothing has changed in two thousand years, same tactics, same enemy, same self-righteous hypocrisy of the New Pharisees like the ADL — those who call themselves Jews but lie, and are of the synagogue of Satan. {Anonymity and the Christian}

We do not know if with ADL he means the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the international Jewish non-governmental organisation based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. They not being a religious organisation as such, but certainly no church. But here we can see why the writer is so much against that non-profit organisation, becaus they too try to take up one of those social teachings of Jesus.

The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens. {“Our Mission”. Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on October 30, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2019.}

He does not want to believe that many Christian claim to want genuine New Testament Christianity as revealed in the book of Acts. He thinks he does not live in a free country any more. He claims that he served his country, which according him is taking over by the church, the children of Satan, who are evil. In one of his podcasts he agrees that all those standard established American churches reduced the gospel of Jesus Christ to the scope of the anti-christ.

He wrongly says that

It was Jesus Christ who gave us the Ten Commandments, He is One with the Father and is the Creator. {Sunday: The Ten Commandments and Christian Nations}

Saying this he goes in against the sayings of God that there is only One God and taht Jesus is His beloved son. Telling people that Jesus gave the ten commandments whilst he himself does not keep to those commandments is making him an anti-Christ and an anti-God. He should know that

The Then Commandments are eternal; {Sunday: The Ten Commandments and Christian Nations}

and that they should also be the foundation of Christian Nations.

He, in one of his podcast, says that when one wsays to be a Christian, that means you have to swear leageons by the words of Jesus Christ. So why does he not keep to the words of Jesus Christ, we wonder, when he is so against Judeo Christians and Christians who do not wordhip like him that threeheaded god?

In that American PhD writer’s attack, we can very well notice how he wildly rants against those who do not adhere to the Trinity doctrine. As an anti-Christ, he goes wild, or rants, like a lion and wants others to believe that those true followers of Jesus are the evildoers in this world. According to him, they are devils when in reality they are children of God and follow the teachings of Jesus.

Let us be fully aware that there have been and still shall come many deceivers who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. They say God has come into the flesh, instead of believing that God provided His beloved son and accepted his ransom offer. The majority of churches we see today, as well as the church where that writer seems to belong to, do not keep to the doctrine of Christ, but prefer to keep to the human traditions and false teachings.

“7 For many deceivers have entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we may receive a full reward. 9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed; 11 for he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds.” (2Jo 1:7-11 KJ21)

Therefore let us be aware what others say about those who want to be in and with Christ. Coming closer to the endtimes we see how many raise their voice against the true followers of Christ. We should not be sad, but rejoice, because true Christianity is alive and flourishing all around the globe. All over the world we can find true followers of Jesus Christ, who worship the Only One true God. In spite of their imperfections, those non-trinitarian Christians, Judeo Christians and Jeshuaists are following Christ’s teachings and practices.

In case you believe that Jesus is the son of God, the sent one from God, who came to liberate you from the chains of this world, let yourself not be captivated by those who are calling you an anti-Christ, because most of the time they are the ones who are the anti-Christ, or belong to an anti-Christ cult the ones warned for in the Scriptures.

You are not expected simply to accept that assertion. Why not examine the beliefs of those who really follow Christ, them being Brothers in Christ or Christadelphians or Jeshuaists, in the light of the Bible, and see for yourself. Learn from God’s Word the Christianity of Jesus’ apostles, as opposed to what Christendom’s churches have taught and practiced for centuries. This will, as the apostle Paul explained, bring you benefits for “the life now and that which is to come.”

“For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1Ti 4:8 KJ21)

Preceding

A vital question for believers

A Theology of Culture War Christianity

Culture War Christianity in American history

Hitler and Christianity: Some Trends in Interpretation

Looking at an American nightmare

About a fleshless diet

Submarine ‘treason’ shows Britain is vassal state of US, say fuming French

Knowing The Truth and Loving The Truth

Additional reading

+++

Culture War Christianity in American history

In this article, you might find our comments on our previously published articles about Culture War Christians

What Are The Culture Wars?

A History Of The Culture Wars

A Theology of Culture War Christianity

Beyond the Culture Wars

Jared Stacy writes

What are the Culture Wars?

Think of “culture” as a way of life. It is the sum total of all values, beliefs, and practices making up a communal existence. When God commissions newly formed humanity in Genesis 1 to “fill the earth and subdue it”, he sets men and women into the world with a cultural mandate. His plan was for a human society, united under his rule in the world, ruling with him over the Cosmos as his vice-regents. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

Karl Marx saw how main religion tried to lure people in the ban of the church by false doctrines. It is because the majority of people did not take the time to read the Bible that so many religious groups were able to get people following their false doctrines.

Regularly, people were so prayed for by those doctrines of those churches that they no longer faced the real thing because they preferred to float on those ideas of those churches. It had become so bad that Marx also realised that for many, religion was like an ‘opium for the people’. In lots of Christian and Islamic denominations, their church leaders managed to have their followers, following and worshipping a wrong god and not following the real Christ. since his time still not much has been changed, and there are still lots of false teachers and false prophets around. Marx was disturbed by the knowledge that he saw so many people around him falling for those false human teachings and giving their money away to those churches when there were so many people around them suffering. Marx also noted few dared to question, let alone challenge, church doctrines.

It also bothered several thinkers in the 19th century that the church made no attempt to defend the majority of their churchgoers or parishioners, and did not stand up against the exploitation of parishioners. For far too many centuries, the Roman Catholic Church itself had done everything possible to trot out money from the poorer population.

The German revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist, Karl Marx and his closest collaborator, the German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels’ answer to the ills of society was according to some, just the opposite of the utopian dreamers’ answers. Mainly this, because the ideas of utopists (like Mr. Ampe) seem for many too far-fetched and unreachable. Though Marx and Engels found enough people who, like them, believed that one could change the way people lived and could come to a better world with less inequality. They, too, went for a better world.

Since World War I the world has evolved incredibly on all levels. Politically it was a time of trying out several political systems, getting more than once in a lot of problems and crises. The Western world clinched at the industrialisation and experienced mixed economies floating between all kinds of political thoughts. Even as the western world became less religious and the church got less of a grip on its citizens, the rich continued to control everything and did everything they could to maintain their power.

For Jared Stacy we have come into a Culture War Christianity where elections are consistently framed He looks at legislation, movies, businesses, etc. as affecting the survival of Christianity itself. For him such

hyperbolic rhetoric is typical. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

For him it is clear that Christ should be at the centre of Christianity. But he also expects something for those who call themselves Christian. He writes

When Jesus prayed,

“on earth as it is on heaven”

he was indicating his expectation and desire that the culture of Heaven becomes the culture of Earth by way of his Church. But does Culture War Christianity, the sort launched in the ’70s, contradict the nature of Jesus’ Kingdom? {What Are The Culture Wars?}

So many people had looked forward to the 20th century, hoping that because of all the new inventions, brought forward by the Industrial Revolution, they would be able to create a world where everything would be much easier and giving them more time to relax. The century opened with great hope but also with some apprehension, for the new century marked the final approach to a new millennium. For many, humankind was entering upon an unprecedented era. The English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian H.G. Wells’s utopian studies, the aptly titled Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901) and A Modern Utopia (1905), both captured and qualified this optimistic mood and gave expression to a common conviction that science and technology would transform the world in the century ahead.

Already before the seventies of the previous century there was something going wrong in the industrialised world. Even though many countries were allowed to offer independence back to their colonies, they continued to exploit people in their own countries. Even when churches wanted to present God in different ways over the years, people should know That God never changes. He will always be the same and keep to the same Plan He had already from the beginning of times.

The American pastor and current PhD candidate in Theological Ethics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Jared Stacy
wants to call our attention to this basic theological ethic:

The work of God’s rule spreading throughout the world in individual lives and communities will never contradict who God is. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

We would have loved that, but reality shows something totally different. For centuries, the main Christian churches have chosen another path than the disciples of Christ. The majority of people preferred to keep to their heathen traditions and festivals and the Catholic and several Protestant churches followed them and made Jesus Christ (the Messiah) their god. As such, we must say there is a lot of contradiction in what people say God is. For many, He is not the God of Christ, Who is the God of Israel, but is a god who is part of a three-headed godship, the Trinity.

It is not just that difference of who God is and who Christ is that has brought division in the world of believers. The diversity of religious groups has also brought both confusion and discord. Coming closer to the 21st-century tension or strife resulting from a lack of agreement came to bring even more separation between the true followers of the Nazarene Jewish masterteacher Jeshua ben Joseph (Jesus Christ) and the name-Christians who worship Jesus as their god and do not shy away from also worshipping all kinds of people they call saints, this while the One True God desires full recognition and worship.

We have the impression that the blog writer who also writes for platforms like NPR, the BBC, Current, and For the Church, does not see (or does not know) the multiple camps in Christendom. He only mentions two of them. He writes

To speak generally, mischaracterizations come from two camps. Let’s call one group “conscientious objectors” and the other, “vocal advocates”.

Some accuse conscientious objectors to the Culture Wars of believing that Christianity should have no influence in the public square. They slander these conscientious objectors as faithless & godless, or misrepresent them as conspiratorially hypocritical, secretly harboring a progressive political agenda.

On the other end of the spectrum, some conscientious objectors accuse vocal advocates of conflating Christianity with cultural power. This often leads them to slander vocal advocates as compromising sell-outs, or mischaracterize their advocacy & well-connected influence as grounded in an inherently complicit conservative agenda. No doubt, I believe there are instances of legitimate criticisms from boths sides in Christian spaces. But polarity abounds. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

For him the polarizing gap between vocal advocates and conscientious objectors reveals a vast “no man’s land” in American evangelicalism. This is why he believes his series has pastoral and personal implications for all of us.

Because either you or someone you know is wandering the no man’s land as a refugee from the Culture Wars. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

Many American evangelicals are proud that they (so-called) keep to The 10 Commandments, though all of them already sin against the first commandment, not keeping to The Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah of hosts, the God above all gods.

David Hansen correctly says

“The majority of Americans will tell any pollster that they believe in the Ten Commandments. But only a small percentage of those people could even recite the Ten Commandment; and even a smaller percentage have any genuine interest in following them.” {The 10 Commandments in American Culture}

Lots of North Americans should seriously think about their religion and their faith. About that faith Stacy says there is a danger.

On a day of hope, we need a fresh reminder of the danger inherent in an embrace of Christian faith. {The Danger of Faith}

He points out the trap many Americans have fallen into.

It is American consumer Christianity that invites us to “make Jesus Lord of our lives”. This pitch makes Christ a commodity, leaving us—the consumer—with control. The resurrection and ascension is a coronation that happens apart from our consumer choice & control. {The Danger of Faith}

1909 painting The Worship of Mammon, the god of material wealth, by Evelyn De Morgan

The great part of the US population, as well as in other developed countries, is that believers have deviated from Biblical truth as well as become wedded to matter and thus actually honour the god Mammon. Several denominations in the United States make clever use of asking people for money all the time, pretending that they will then have a better life. It has also become so ingrained in people that one can only be successful if one has acquired a lot of money. Consequently, many do everything possible to be as rich as possible (on the material plane) while completely neglecting spiritual wealth. Many have forgotten that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Stacy writes

It is hard to deny today that for many, the supposed downfall of America is synonymous with the collapse of Christianity. Jesus confronts this idolatry with his Kingdom. {The Danger of Faith}

Lots of Americans are even not aware of how they participate in idolatry, which they prove by continually clinging to pagan festivals such as Candlemas, Easter, Halloween and Christmas, to name only the main ones, and to cling to money and material gain.

He reigns over a Kingdom that cannot be shaken through the rising and falling empires of this world. {The Danger of Faith}

And throughout history, many kingships or kingdoms and principalities as well as republics have risen and fallen. Never before has man succeeded in creating a nation or empire in which everyone was comfortable and where justice was done to everyone. Several Christians, in imitation of Christ, have tried to make people understand how best to live in unity with fellow human beings, plants and animals.

The 1963 March on Washington participants and leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, as mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s.

When we look at the German culture struggle of the 1870’s (kulturkampf) it’s clear that the American Civil Rights movement was a “Culture War” too. King’s commitment to non-violence laid a distinct Christian foundation for the Civil Rights movement. But white evangelicals of the time either distanced themselves from King, or denounced the Civil Rights movement entirely, with calls to “just preach the gospel.” {A History Of The Culture Wars}

writes Stacy.

But not many white Americans were really willing to go to preach what was really written in the gospel. They prefer just to take some phrases out of context to repeat them so that people come to believe them.

The forty odd years from this origin point until today witnessed the end of the Cold War and an insurrection at the US Capitol. Between these bookends, Culture War Christianity made itself known & felt in American society through movements. (See, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne; Stan Gall, Borderlines: Reflections on Sex, War, and the Church; Frances Fitzgerald, The Evangelicals; Tim Gloege, Guaranteed Pure; historical treatments on these movements) {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Stacy reminds his readers:

The arguments and relationships in the antebellum South were transported via Lost Cause theology 100 years into the future, seen in white evangelical responses to the Civil Rights Movement. But these leaders could not ignore the impact of King’s kulturkampf. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

He assures his readers that

Culture War Christianity started after the Civil Rights Movement, not before. It borrows the playbook of the CRM. Ironically, it thrives on a sort of “persecuted minority” mindset, borrowed from the Civil Rights movement, but not actually indicative of the communal experience in its main constituents: white evangelicals. A minority mindset is a prominent characteristic of God’s people in the Scriptures. However, this mindset is not characteristic of evangelical experience in the United States. Race relations and evangelical’s historic participation in the moral establishment offer two historical keys that present a necessary critique of modern Culture War Christianity. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

He believes it is impossible to understand the history behind Culture War Christianity apart from race relations in the United States. So, we begin where we left off, with this statement:

The Culture Wars began when white American evangelicals took the activist playbook from the very Civil Rights leaders they opposed, to advance a moral agenda they could support.

…

Some were overtly political, like the Moral Majority or Christian Coalition. Others would serve the notion of family values, yet retain political influence, like Focus on the Family or Promise Keepers. Local churches and expansive media (books, radio, television) formed the local grassroots communities made these movements possible.

While this all may seem quite familiar, especially if you inhabited spaces within white American Christianity during the last 40 years, a history of the Culture Wars would be best served by going back 2 centuries to look at the phrase “Culture War” itself. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

In his blog he then goes back to the 19th century, across the Atlantic Ocean where the Germans provide us with a glimpse into a framework upstream to both the Civil Rights Movement and “Culture War Christianity” at a time when a new world order was being born. In that era, he recognises the central position of the Catholic Church, facing new threats to its grasp on power.

From the political power of the nation- state to the intellectual frameworks of liberalism and Darwinism, the winds were shifting. In response, the Church produced a flurry of theological statements and denouncements meant to stem the tide of ideas that threatened its hold on the Old World Order. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Portrait of Pope Pius IX circa 1864

The Holy See under Pope Pius IX on 8 December 1864, brought an appendix to the Quanta cura encyclical, with a syllabus where the church wanted to have the people see that it was with the times and recognised 80 of the

“principal errors of our times.”

As the errors listed had already been condemned in allocutions, encyclicals, and other apostolic letters, the Syllabus said nothing new and so could not be contested. Its importance lay in the fact that it published to the world what had previously been preached in the main only to the bishops, and that it made general what had been previously specific denunciations concerned with particular events. Perhaps the most famous article, the 80th, stigmatising as an error the view that

“the Roman Pontiff can and should reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberalism, and modern civilisation,”

sought its authority in the pope’s refusal, in Jamdudum Cernimus, to have any dealings with the new Italian kingdom. On both scores, the Syllabus undermined the liberal Catholics’ position, for it destroyed their following among intellectuals and placed their program out of court.

The Church denounced religious liberty, the nation-state, and other consequences stemming from the “threat of liberalism.” {A History Of The Culture Wars}

For some time there had been bumbling or difficulty in having a good relationship with the Catholic Church. More thinkers also came to speak out about the huge profits the Church was making on the backs of the faithful. Increasingly, there was also the idea of going back to the basics of Christ’s teachings where simplicity was preached and people were taught how to stand up for and care for each other. In the gospel, Jesus set a good example of how not only Christians should live, but actually every human being.

In the 1870’s, the German people, specifically within the Kingdom of Prussia, found themselves in conflict with the Catholic Church over their own Reformation roots and a rapidly secularizing order. This conflict had ramifications for both the Church and the separated German states. As a result of this conflict swirling around the German peoples, individual German States united along highly Protestant lines under Otto Von Bismark of Prussia. (See, Helmut Walser Smith, editor, The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History) This period of conflict and change was given a name: Kulturkampf, or “Culture Struggle”. This German kulturkampf shows us how struggles between competing visions for human existence are sparked by complex reactions between religion, politics, and power. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

It is the clash between people of the common people, as well as philosophers and political thinkers, with the church, that caused very animated conversations in several places in the German Empire about faith, church, and the way we as human beings should choose to arrive at a better world.

After World War II several American religious groups tried to have the power over the American people. They tried to convince them that they were the sole church which preached the truth. Some even went so far to tell the people they were chosen by God and that their church is the only one that can bring them in heaven. For those churches, it is certain that one can only be accepted by God if one follows their rules. Of course, such a saying is absurd, but a large majority of Americans follow that false statement. In the life of faith, it is also certain that no particular church by Jesus was ever designated as the only one to follow.

By studying German kulturkampf, we can begin to see the American Culture War’s false claim to exclusivity and authority by claiming itself to be the sole representative and defender of orthodox Christianity. When we realize this — that American Culture War Christianity is not the single defender of the faith — it trains us to adopt a healthy critical filter every time a Christian leader describes the “very survival of Christianity at stake” as a smoke screen for unChristian agreements with power. On the other hand, conscientious objectors to Culture War Christianity would do well to consider how “culture struggle” might be a positive expression of Christian faith. There is space to consider positive “culture struggle”. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

King’s kulturkampf was rooted in Christian principles, and sought to dismantle the injustices of racial segregation, subjugation and discrimination within America. With the upcoming of the more conservative Christians, and/or conservative evangelicals, the position between coloured people worsened again and nationalism and (far) right-wing ideas came to the forefront in the States, the same way they did in the 1930s in Europe. Thus, from Europe, we could see the very dangerous development of right-wing rule and the glorification of such despots as Donald Trump, who is a danger to the world.

What would come to define and shape Culture War Christianity in 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s in the US is not at all what King and several serious preachers had in mind. The growing conservatism by the Americans brought forward people who are against equality and who find the white man is the pure race. Even Billy Graham came to criticise segregation but also denounced the non-violent demonstrations as contributing to further violence.

Others denounced calls for desegregation entirely. Back in 1960, Bob Jones Sr. took harder lines at Christians supporting an end to segregation by referring to them as “religious infidels”. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Several pastors of mega-churches, especially in white neighbourhoods, succeeded in shifting all the faults of the system onto the backs of the blacks and refugees who just’ came and invaded America’, without the government doing enough to stop them. One would think the religious leaders would have their moral reasoning to flow from a theological calculus, but it (for sure) did not come from Biblical teaching.

Stacy writes

Charles Ivory’s masterful Proslavery Christianity examines the white evangelical relationship with black evangelicals before the Civil War. He looks at how these interactions between white and black Christians, slave and free, actually came to shape the white evangelical theological defense of slavery. If we want to understand the Culture War Christianity of Falwell, and other white evangelicals, we need to examine their response to the Civil Rights Movement. I believe their response has its source in the theological calculus of white evangelicals in the antebellum South. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Ivory writes it was not uncommon for white and black evangelicals to worship within the same church. Indeed, the revival of the late 18th century did not discriminate on the basis of cultural background. But the theological conflict in evangelical churches pre-Civil War centered around conversion. Namely, does Christian conversion necessitate manumission? Today, Christians would argue chattel slavery is indefensible regardless of a slave’s conversion to Christianity. Humanity is not property. However, the historical context of the time made the question of conversion and manumission the frontline theological conflict regarding chattel slavery within evangelical churches. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

In West Europe the people had gone already through that process, knowing that slavery was something one could not accept in a civilised society. On this, several speakers came to draw attention to a system to bring more equality among all people. The road to socialism and communism was thus promoted by several enthusiasts.

Culture War Christianity has long since ossified into the de facto expression of faith for many white American evangelicals.

But those white American Christians have come to love themselves more than someone else and consider themselves as the only ones worthy to govern America. They do not have an eye at all for the indigenous people, because they consider themselves as the rightful founders and owners of America.

For 200 years, white evangelicalism has been an insider. No where has the minority mindset been more pervasive in our modern conception of Culture War Christianity than rhetoric. Phrases like “drain the swamp”, “make America great again”, and “take back America for God” in evangelical politics go right next to “that’s too political” and “just preach the gospel” in evangelical churches. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

We can wonder from who those evangelicals have to take back ‘their country’! Those evangelicals seem not to have any idea what the ‘founders’ of America had in mind and why they wanted religion and government separated.

While separation of church and state was federally enshrined in the Constitution, it did not play out in those strict terms in state and local governments. This changed in the early 20th century, when the Scopes trial, New Deal politics, and internal theological warring between fundamentalists and modernists left a vacuum in American society that evangelicalism used to fill in common culture. Neo-evangelicals like Billy Graham emerged in this vacuum. But for the long of American history, Christians have not only been influential, but privileged.

How can a privileged majority come to see itself as a minority? Culture War Christianity accomplishes this in part by dressing itself in the Biblical and theological concept of a remnant. A faithful few of God’s people who remain loyal to God and his ways in a foreign, godless land. But this theological adaptation does not line up with the historical participation of white evangelicals in the moral establishment of the United States. Yet, the drums of Culture War for white American Christians implied a greater enemy beyond its borders. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Though the big problem of those Tea Party and conservative or fundamentalist evangelicals is that they are not at all remaining “loyal to God and his ways in a foreign, godless land” they even have betrayed God and His son on several levels. They have created some three-headed god (or three-une being) and political leaders such as Trump as their gods, and consider their American flag as their religious symbol^{even a Christian symbol}. For sure they can not belong to the faithful few of God’s people, because they do not believe in the Only One True God and because they do not act like People of God. They themselves are part of that ‘dark world’ the Bible is talking about. And now in those times that darkness and of gloominess can be seen everywhere, they also do everything to create division and spread hate, instead of spreading the love of Christ and his great message of a world full of peace. Those evangelicals with other name Christians have made it a sport to make fun of, blacken and curse true Christians. They do everything possible to get people away from those true worshippers of God. They also have some sort of paranoia and consider all people from abroad as dangerous suspects. They fear those coming from outside America would destroy their freedom.

Stacy remarks

the drums of Culture War for white American Christians implied a greater enemy beyond its borders. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

and also see what happened under the influence of certain political figures.

The Culture Wars of white American evangelicalism was not the reaction of the minority against the majority, but the majority against a imagined majority. It is hard to avoid this conclusion given overwhelming support for President Trump. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Stacy continues writing

In the place of Jesus’ active reign today, we find American Christians given to other reigning power structures: nationalism, racism, misogyny, and bigotry. They are discipled by political—not resurrection—power. This is partly the reason why Culture War Christians took greater issue with Kaepernick’s supposed desecration of the flag than they might with his concerns over police brutality against image bearers. They operate in a power structure other than the Kingdom of Jesus. {A Theology of Culture War Christianity}

Stacys wonders

What if Culture War Christianity long ago bowed the knee to a nationalist, secular conservatism? One with its law & order politics, reticence on issues of race, and idolatry of country? {Beyond the Culture Wars}

Ans says that he has argued this in his series.

Long before white evangelicals told MLK to “just preach the gospel”, there has always been a Christianity domesticated by, and deployed in defense of, the status quo in this country. Frederick Douglass called it before any of us. And in this sort of Christianity, “make disciples” has too often been code for “make people like us” not “make us like Jesus”. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

There lies one of the biggest problems in American Christendom. The majority of Americans does not take time enough to seriously study the Scriptures. For most of them the Bible also only means the New Testament. Lots of those evangelicals also do not understand what that sacrificial offering of Jesus, letting himself be nailed at the stake, means. For them it is very difficult to grasp how a man of flesh and blood could give himself as a lamb for whitewashing the sins of many.

Some of those white evangelicals living in the United States of America are convinced they are the only ones who can Make America Great Again and build up the most correct state. They forget how so many people before them have tried already to construct an ideal state. They should know it shall only happen under Jesus Christ that we shall be able to live in a perfect world.

Let us also not forget Niebuhr’s saying,

“any good worth doing takes more than one lifetime.”

According to Jared Stacy

This should give us pause before we entertain pragmatism to bring about change in our lifetime. It was Jesus who said,

“what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?”

This should give us pause as we count the cost of pragmatism to reveal the Kingdom of God. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

He ends his article series by saying

After all, the cross is not a symbol of cultural superiority for white America, but of surrender and sacrifice in the Kingdom of God. We must measure our motivations by the Cross, and our methods. Take it from me. A millennial. The generation who was born in and shaped by the ‘Jesus & John Wayne evangelicalism” in its prime. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

And recognises the problem

Culture War Christianity allows you to have a Christian worldview and reject the Cross. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

By which he hopefully means: rejecting the ransom offering of that Jewish Nazarene master teacher, Jeshua ben Josef, or Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

It substitutes other, more pragmatic means to really get things done. But in the Kingdom of Jesus the only strategy available for implementing a Christian worldview is the Cross. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

We have to do away with the false teaching in Christendom and have to go back to the Biblical teachings and keep to them, adhering to Biblical Truth and not human doctrine.

We should recognise the danger of that growing conservative evangelism.

For all it’s posturing about the morality of America, Culture War Christianity has stopped its ear to calls for ethnic & economic justice. Has tied its hands in response to sexual scandal and abuse in its ranks. Yet expresses incredulity when the world fails to take its sexual ethic seriously. Culture War Christianity can only provide more entrenchment, more combat, and more pragmatism. But crucified Christianity is growing the world over, and—as it has always done— turning the world upside down. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

Writing from Scotland, the author of the mentioned articles, wants to suggest a simple but humble invitation to venture into the wilderness as an act of faithfulness. For him,

the wilderness meant stepping out of the American pastorate, and out of America. This was my move made in faith. An attempt to combat the rise of cynicism in my own spirit, channeling it into meaningful, faithful action. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

From Moses, to Elijah, to Christ. Perhaps the wilderness is the place for those disenchanted and disillusioned, those disowned and disinherited from Culture War Christianity, to begin to see the Cross not as a symbol storming the US Capitol, but again as a place where our power grabs go to die. And where there is death to our ability to bring about change, God brings resurrection that changes everything. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

The Austrian philosopher and Roman Catholic priest known for his radical polemics arguing that the benefits of many modern technologies and social arrangements were illusory and that, still further, such developments undermined humans’ self-sufficiency, freedom, and dignity, Ivan Illich illumines what it is to be in the world, but not of it — just like Jesus.

Jared Stacy offers his words as a simple reflection in the conclusion to his series:

It is astonishing what the devil says: I have all power, it has been given to me, and I am the one to hand it on — submit, and it is yours. Jesus of course does not submit…Not for a moment, however, does Jesus contradict the devil. He does not question that the devil holds all power, nor that this power has been given to him, nor that he, the devil, gives it to whom he pleases. This is a point which is easily overlooked. By his silence Jesus recognizes power that is established as “devil” and defines Himself as The Powerless. He who cannot accept this view on power cannot look at establishments through the spectacle of the Gospel. This is what clergy and churches often have difficulty doing. They are so strongly motivated by the image of church as a “helping institution” that they are constantly motivated to hold power, share in it or, at least, influence it. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

Please also do find to read

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by Guestspeaker | 2022/02/14 · 5:30 pm

How Many Gods?

The world has a plethora of religions which, in turn, are further subdivided into various breakaway groups or denominations. We have not yet reached the end of the emergence of religious groups. As long as we have not come to the Last Days, there will be divisions in the world, both civil and spiritual.

To remember

The problem is that they all look at the local area office demiurge in charge of local affairs rather than God

missing the mark + settling for a god who is domesticated & pasteurized.

Church needs a complete overhaul, including a massive dose of humility + a leadership that journeys with rather than demanding compliance.

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Preceding

Many opportunities given by God

If the Bible tells us not to lean upon our own understanding, are preachers, and Bible professors, leaning upon the theirs’?

Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

Many looking for the church of the world instead of the Church of God

Christian denominations as pots in the desert

Having to learn and benefit from other Christian denominations

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Additional reading

A world with or without religion

Where to learn the truth

Digging in words, theories and artefacts

Religion and believers #1 Lots of groups and forms of belief to be taken interest in

Religion and believers #7 Independent and organised form of existence of a religion

Approachers of ideas around gods, philosophers and theologians

Gates to different belief systems in this world

Protestant denominations of the Low Countries and Abraham Kuyper

When there is secrecy involved

Those willing to tarnish

Pastoral discipline and dissent from papal teaching

About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated

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Related

Variations of Christianity

Brand Ambassador or Christ’s Ambassador?

Catechesis 101 | Church: Did Jesus intend one Church or many denominations?

About the different denominations

Christian denominations (sects)

Are denominational differences a blot on the church?

Denominations Losing Internal Influence

Why are there so many splits in the Presbyterian Church? Here’s an Explanation

Science vs. Religion

Culture warriors just wrecked an old denomination

Truth

Which Church Would Jesus Choose?

Self Deception Part III – Wolves Among Us

Do Denominations Divide Us?

Does Denominationalism Blind You to the Truth?

Simple Difference

Religious Population Is Growing

A Call for Unity

This is Church Unity?

What Does It Mean To Be Non-Denominational?

God Beyond Limits

Every religion and every subdivision of those religions purports to reveal God to us, and all of them fail. What they reveal instead are gods, middle managers at best, what the Hebrew scriptures called demiurges. I say this because, quite frankly, we imagine God should be our personal errand boy, taking care of this and that, allowing us to manipulate him into doing our bidding by virtue of our having obeyed some rather penny ante behavioral restrictions. It’s done in the name of explaining how God cares for us, but would any God worthy of the name be a micromanager?

The reason I say there are thirty-eight thousand gods and counting is that is approximately the number of Protestant denominations of Christianity at the present time. Leaving out other religions and the various catholic denominations for a moment, each of those thirty-eight thousand has their own particular understanding of their…

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Many looking for the church of the world instead of the Church of God

Looking for the church

Someone has said,

“I looked for the Church, and found it in the world. I look for the world, and found it in the Church.”

The word ICHABOD has been stamped on many a local church door, but only spiritual eyes can see that the glory of the Lord has departed. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

That is the problem of our world or the problem of our nation … human beings always looking for other human beings and believing in human beings more than in the Word of the Highest all-knowing eternal God above all gods.

Coming face to face with God

Mankind is afraid to come face to face with God. It is impossible for man to see God, though man wants to have something they can refer to, see and feel or touch. They also want to have a god who has similarities with them, and therefore they took themselves a godhead they can grab. Of that god they created for themselves, a male figure, they can take pictures and statues. Even when the Bible tells mankind that he may not make any graven image of God, man prefers to ignore such demands and has made himself many images of their god.

The Holy Scriptures or Infallible Word of God – Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Too many people do forget or do not want to see that God promises to work through His Word and that This Word of God gives all the knowledge that we need to come to find God and to come to know what God wants from us. God wants to have a relationship with His creatures. He did not create them to be against Him, in the same way, He did not give them commandments of which He knew man would be able not to keep them.

Sinful people

By the first sinful act of Adam and Eve, sin came into the world. All those coming after them were sinful people. Still today it is like that. It would be very difficult to find someone who is without something doing wrong or without having sinned. We are all taken up by sin.

“As by means of one man, sin entered into the world, and, by means of sin, death; and so death passed upon all the sons of men, inasmuch as they all have sinned: — ” (Ro 5:12 Murdock)

“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”” (Ge 4:7 KJ21)

“”If they sin against Thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and Thou be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;” (1Ki 8:46 KJ21)

It is that sinning that is standing in the way to have a good relationship with our heavenly Father. To come to a better relationship God provided means. One of those was by creating a possibility for man to show his submission to God and his desire to please God by offering sacrifices to God. Later in the history of mankind, there came special places to bring such offerings to God and as such temples came into existence, where also special people took care of the services for God. Those priests were at first anointed by God Himself, though later man took care of themselves to appoint priests and to decide for themselves how those services to God and sacrifices were to be carried out. In a way such services would later become churchservices.

Houses of worship for the Only One God Jehovah

At first Jesus and his apostles went to those houses of worship. In those temples, they praised not Jesus but the God of the Hebrews, the God of Adam and Eve, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who is the Only True God. Jesus and his apostle were very well aware of that Name of That God. They worshipped Jehovah as the Only One True God.

“that men may know that Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth.” (Ps 83:18 KJ21)

“2 And God spoke unto Moses and said unto him, “I am the LORD. 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” (Ex 6:2-3 KJ21)

When Jesus was gone the apostle did not change their mind about Whom they had to worship and about Whom they had to pray to and call His Name.

“For “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”” (Ro 10:13 KJ21)

“and in that day shall ye say: “Praise the LORD! Call upon His name! Declare His doings among the people; make mention that His name is exalted.” (Isa 12:4 KJ21)

The way of worshipping did not change in the first century. It was customary for them to continue to go to the temple and to praise and glorify God there, as well as to continue to study the Hebrew Scriptures. They were convinced that such worship of God should come from deep within the heart and not be a mere passing fancy.

“God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”” (Joh 4:24 KJ21)

“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)

Yes, not Jesus was their god, but the Divine Creator of heaven and earth was their God. To them, it was as pure as a lump of sugar or clear as water, that this God is only one.

“”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (De 6:4 KJ21)

One God and His beloved son opposite a god the son

They felt that they had become one in God by the sent one from God in whom they came to believe as that promised one from old times, who they now recognised as their saviour or that promised Messiah, by whom they now got the opportunity to get a new life.

“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)

It was several years after Jesus had died that certain people started taking Jesus as their god, forgetting the words Jesus himself had spoken.

“Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”” (Joh 20:17 KJ21)

Today there are still many people who do not hear or want to understand those words of that son of man, who gave his life for many, so that we can have hope for receiving a new life in the Kingdom of God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1Pe 1:3 KJ21)

Those who claim that Jesus is God, should better think about the fact that Jesus more than once prayed to Whom he called God. He did not pray to himself, neither cried to himself, or did not ask himself why He had abandoned him. (How would a person abandon or forsake himself?)

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”” (Mr 15:34 KJ21)

“1 These words spoke Jesus and lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, “Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, 2 as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. 3 And this is life eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” (Joh 17:1-3 KJ21)

The apostle Peter might be one of the first apostles who publicly professed who Jesus Christ was.

“16 And Simon Peter answered and said,

“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 And Jesus answered and said unto him,

“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in Heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 KJ21)

A son of man as a way to God

It was such confession that the apostles required also from those who wanted to go in the footsteps of their master teacher. This way started of a group of followers of Christ. People who were convinced that Jesus was the way, like he more than once told others.

“Jesus said to him: I am the way, and truth, and life: no one cometh unto my Father, but by me.” (Joh 14:6 Murdock)

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1Jo 4:15 KJ21)

The apostles also wrote down how they came to understand who Jesus Christ was and how the world had come to see that he is the son of man and son of God. By writing it all down, those writings should give a clear picture of Whom God is and about whom Jesus is.

“And the angel answered and said unto her,

“The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Being who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Lu 1:35 KJ21)

“And I saw and bore record that this is the Son of God.”” (Joh 1:34 KJ21)

“29 Jesus said unto him,

“Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through His name.” (Joh 20:29-31 KJ21)

Accepting Jesus as son of God

That life which may come over us is by accepting who Jesus is, the son of God, and not by going all the fancies of the world. It are not the human doctrines we should take for the rules to follow, but the Biblical doctrines we should take for granted and to go by. It are those sacred writings that tell us that Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of God, being a mediator between God and us.

“5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 KJ21)

For those who continued to follow the apostles of Jesus it is clear that there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and that newt to This God there is the one Who God Himself declared to be His only beloved son, Jesus Christ the Messiah. (1Co 8:6)

Followers of false teachings and false teachers

Up to today there are people who want to follow the teachings of those false teachers who claimed that Jesus would be an incarnated God. Some of the present teachers or pastors even want to twist the historical truth and come to say that it were the non-trinitarian preachers who would have followed Greco-Roman philosophy, though it are the Trinitarians who took all sorts of believes of those philosophers in their teaching, like incarnation, separate souls who would leave the body after death, hell as a burning place of eternal torture, etc. . Instead of bringing people on the right path to God, they mislead their churchgoers and having them worship a false god.

Already in the first century, the apostles warned against such false teachers who violated the Word of God and often came to deceive people with things they liked to hear. Such a God made flesh appealed to many, and still does. Hereby lots of people forget how often in the Bible is told that Jesus is the son of God (something totally different as “god the son”) and how Jesus himself spoke about his heavenly Father, from Whom he came and to Whom he went again.

“Jesus said to her:

Touch me not; for not yet have I ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” (Joh 20:17 Murdock)

Those teachers claiming that Jesus would be God destroy the value of Jesus’ act of sacrifice and make God a great comedian who repeatedly told lies to deceive people, let alone called Himself a “God of no lies” when He did see mankind as lying creatures. Those Trinitarian preachers seem to neglect that The God of no lies said Himself that Jesus is His beloved son.

“And lo, a voice came from Heaven, saying,

“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.”” (Mt 3:17 KJ21)

“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.”” (Ro 3:4 KJ21)

Not only minimalise those preachers the self-sacrifice of Jesus the also make the resurrection of Jesus as a joke, because God can not die (Him being an eternal Spirit) and when Jesus is God we are still left with no proof at all that man would be able to step out of the dead. As such those trinitarian churches take away our hope for a resurrection, because we can not become God and do like Him, but are then still bounded to the grave (sheol or hell). The real followers of Christ continued teaching the Gospel or Good News of the coming Kingdom of God, by which there is the hope in the resurrection of the man Jesus Christ, as an example of what can happen to us.

“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, who in his great mercy hath begotten us anew, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, to the hope of life,” (1Pe 1:3 Murdock)

Not a schizophrenic God

Jesus was or is not a schizophrenic God Who came to pray and cry to himself. Jesus prayed sincerely to his heavenly Father, Whom he considered to be the Only One True God.

“And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said: [Il, Il, lemono shebakthone;]that is: My God, my God; why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mr 15:34 Murdock)

“1 These things spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said: My Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. 2 As thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he might give life eternal to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, that thou art the only true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Messiah.” (Joh 17:1-3 Murdock)

It might have taken some time before the apostles really came to see who their master-teacher really was and how they should behave and go into the world as his disciples and workers for God. It can well be that the apostle Peter was the first one to recognise for the first time in public Jesus real position.

“16 Simon Cephas {Greek: Simon Peter} answered and said:

Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

17 Jesus answered, and said to him:

Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonas; for flesh and blood have not revealed [it] to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 Murdock)

The religion of Old Testament not passing away

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

After that Jesus was taken into heaven by his heavenly Father and after Jesus promised helper came over the apostles they dared to come out in public again and started off their great preaching work.

Those who heard and/or saw Jesus preach and/or heard the apostles, could not believe that the religion of the Old Testament, revealed by God Himself, should pass away. They indeed regarded Jesus as the Saviour of Gentiles as well as Jews. We could say that Judaism was for them considered the necessary introduction to their group (which we call today Christianity). Several people from all sorts of rang came to join the apostles. Their Jewish movement was called “The Way“.

But by joining more non-Jews the matter of circumcision and the observance of the whole Mosaic law came under discussion. The question was the sole condition of an interest in the Messianic salvation. And, offensive as Judaism was, rather than attractive, to the heathen, this principle would have utterly precluded the conversion of the mass of the Gentile world. The apostles themselves were at first trammelled by this Judaistic prejudice, till taught better by the special revelation to Peter before the conversion of Cornelius.
But even after the baptism of the uncircumcised centurion, and Peter’s defence of it before the church of Jerusalem, the old leaven still wrought in some Jewish Christians who had formerly belonged to the rigid and exclusive sect of the Pharisees, to which the apostle Paul also belonged to.

Difficulties around gentile converts

The churches of Jerusalem and Antioch resolved to hold a private and a public conference at Jerusalem. Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas as commissioners to represent the Gentile converts. Paul, fully aware of the gravity of the crisis, obeyed at the same time an inner and higher impulse. He also took with him Titus, a native Greek, as a living specimen of what the Spirit of God could accomplish without circumcision. The conference was held C.E. 50 or 51 (fourteen years after Paul’s conversion). It was the first and in some respects the most important council or synod held in the history of Christendom, though differing widely from the councils of later times. It is placed in the middle of the book of Acts as the connecting link between the two sections of the apostolic church and the two epochs of its missionary history.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

In the beginning, the people from The Way, like all the Jews, went on the Sabbath to the gathering in the temple. But after more goyim or non-Jews had joined that movement which confessed that Jesus is the son of God (Lu 1:35 ), and as such also came to abide in God (1Jo 4:15), they were not so welcome anymore in the temples and synagogues. Those non-Jews by their baptism in Christ being taken up in the group, which grew fairly quickly, and made others look jealous at them but also did not want those non-Jews in their prayer houses. Therefore The Way started also to come together in private houses and as such creating the first house churches.

Seeing and not seeing the man of flesh and blood

The apostles had after some years got a very clear picture of Jesus and with them many others had seen this man of flesh and blood (remember that God can not be seen by man). They testified that their master is the Son of God (Joh 1:34) and never said that Jesus would have claimed such a position, to be God. The amount of false teachers grew and began to argue with the true followers of Jesus who held to the sonship of Christ Jesus and did not wish to enter into the false teaching of Jesus’ Godhead.

In ancient time people could see and hear Jesus. We do not have such an opportunity anymore, though we should go by the material which is handed over to us in the Books of the New Testament. They provide enough information to learn about the man Jesus from Nazareth and his disciples. In connection with the Books of the Old Testament one should clearly come to see what Jesus role is in the history of mankind. Not having seen Jesus Christ, there were loads of people who came to believe in the son of God, that man of flesh and blood. Not having been able to see Christ we have to believe in him and accept him as the mediator for us by his heavenly Father the Only One True God.

“29 Jesus said to him: Now, when thou hast seen me, thou believest: blessed are they, who have not seen me, yet believe. — 30 And many other signs did Jesus before his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that when ye believe, ye may have life eternal by his name.” (Joh 20:29-31 Murdock)

“5 For God is one; and the mediator between God and men is one, [namely] the man Jesus the Messiah; 6 who gave himself a ransom for every man; — testimony that arrived in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 Murdock)

Jerusalem consultation

The object of the Jerusalem consultation was twofold: first, to settle the personal relation between the Jewish and Gentile apostles, disciples and preachers, and to divide their field of labour; secondly, to decide the question of circumcision, and to define the relation between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. On the first point (as we learn from Paul) it effected a complete and final, on the second point (as we learn from Luke) a partial and temporary settlement. In the nature of the case the public conference in which the whole church took part, was preceded and accompanied by private consultations of the apostles.

Constantine period

In the fourth century the division between the real followers of Christ and the followers of those false teachers who mixed those teachings of Christ with other human teachings, had become so big that they called for a council to decide how the church would continue.

Constantine I (the Great) the founder of Constantinople and the Byzantine empire, and for someone of the most gifted, energetic, and successful of the Roman emperors, was the first representative of the imposing idea of a Christian theocracy, or of that system of policy which assumes all subjects to be Christians, connects civil and religious rights, and regards church and state as the two arms of one and the same divine government on earth. This idea was more fully developed by his successors, it animated the whole middle age, and is yet working under various forms in these latest times; though it has never been fully realised, whether in the Byzantine, the German, or the Russian empire, the Roman church-state, the Calvinistic republic of Geneva, or the early Puritanic colonies of New England. At the same time, however, Constantine stands also as the type of undiscriminating and harmful conjunction of Christianity with politics, of the holy symbol of peace with the horrors of war, of the spiritual interests of the kingdom of heaven with the earthly interests of the state.

He was the man who gave those preachers the choice to come with the world or to stay by their ideas of not being part of the world. The majority choose to be befriended and to walk in fellowship with the world.

Unquestionably every age produces and shapes its own organs, as its own purposes require and as such the Jewish movement of The Way had seen many people going astray and going their own way. Constantine I did put himself at the head of the age, and was annoyed by the differences and discussions there were by those who claimed to be the followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua ben Josef, Jesus Christ. He also clearly saw that idolatry had outlived itself in the Roman empire, and that Christianity alone could breathe new vigour into it and furnish its moral support.

Donatists and Arians

From the year 313 he placed himself in close connection with the ‘bishops’, made peace and harmony his first object in the Donatist and Arian controversies and applied the predicate “catholic” to the church in all official documents. The Donatists argueing that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to the non-Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists; Constantine was apparently not fully aware of the seriousness of the dispute, which his gift exacerbated. The Donatists appealed to Rome for equal treatment; Constantine tasked Miltiades with resolving the issue, which led to the 313 commission.

Many non-trinitarians are often called Arians by Trinitarians, though often those Christians do not follow Arius his teachings but simply the Biblical teachings. The Christian priest Arius, whose teachings gave rise to a theological doctrine known as Arianism, also followed the apostolic teaching that God is One and that Jesus is His son and not God Himself. What makes Arainism so different with what many non-trinitarians are still following today, is that those real followers of Christ (including us) do not integrate Neoplatonism, nor are we inspired by Plato’s ideas or by pre-Socratics (who interpreted the world monistically in terms of nature as such), from the relativism of the Sophists, and from the correction of Platonism in a this-worldly direction carried out by Plato’s greatest pupil, Aristotle.

It is a very big misconception of Trinitarians that nonTrinitarians, or those who do not wish to accept Jesus as God, would be Arians, whereas they do not follow the teachings of Arius at all. The teaching those present non-Trinitarians follow is simply the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.

The only similarity in Arius and the present non-trinitarian denominations is Arius’s basic premise of the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything else) and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot therefore be the self-existent and immutable God.

“”There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun ^{[a poetic name for the people of Israel, meaning ‘upright people’]}, who rideth upon the heaven to thy help and in His excellency on the sky.” (De 33:26 KJ21)

“33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?” 35 Or, “who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” 36 For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Ro 11:33-36 KJ21)

Because the Godhead is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated according to Arius. Because the Godhead is immutable, the Son, who is mutable, must, therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence out of nothing and has had a beginning. Moreover, according to Arius the Son can have no direct knowledge of the Father, since the Son is finite and of a different order of existence. For the real followers of Christ there is the knowledge that Jesus was placed in the womb of that young girl and as such coming directly from God must have some DNA from God. Jesus was born in that very devout Essene family of the tribe of King David and had got a very thorough religious upbringing with the Word of God as an inspirational source.

Name change

Badly enough, most of the clergy wanted to come to an agreement with Constantine the Great in order to keep the peace and not to be persecuted anymore. This was done by the clergy to bring their religion more in line with the Greek Roman religion and their triple deity Zeus who was then the main deity worshipped by Constantine and his followers. In order to equate Jeshua (Yeshua) with that deity Zeus, his name was transformed from Jeshua to Issou or Yai_Zeus > Je-Zeus which means Hail Zeus. Since then, the false name (Jezus – Jesus – Chesu) has become fully accepted and in time it was also used by the non-trinitarians to make clear that they were talking about one and the same person as the Trinitarians.

Constantine was praised and censured in turn by the Christians and Pagans, the Orthodox and the Arians, as they successively experienced his favour or dislike, but the real followers of Christ saw in him a very dangerous despot who could easily subdue the false teachers and in unity oppose the true followers of Christ.

The ones coming under agreement with each other about the deity of Jesus and the wishes of Constantine, became the Roman Catholics, who claimed to be the only true church and continued to grow by making sure people from all sorts of tribes could find themselves at home, because many of their traditions were taken in or integrated into that religion.

The real followers of Christ Jesus did not like the name change but had to do with it. for many centuries they tried those who worshipped Jesus as their god to come to know the real Jesus from the Bible.

The groups which accented the absolute oneness of the Divinity as the highest perfection, with a literal, rationalist approach to the New Testament texts sought their way in the world. That point of view was publicized about 323 through the poetic verse of his major work, Thalia (“Banquet”), and was widely spread by popular songs written for labourers and travellers.

The non-Trinitarian aspect and the other Arian teachings (of Arius) and papal positions (Ursinus) brought forth further disputes and conferences, synods or councils. The Ursinians became established in Milan and rekindled their opposition to Damasus.

Damasus I presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He encouraged the production of the Latin Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome.
He spoke out against other groups of Christians that had grown in popularity and denounced several major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism). In two synods (368 and 369) the unorthodox teachings of Bishop Macedonius of Constantinople and of Bishop Apollinaris (the Younger) of Laodicea were condemned. Among Damasus’s literary remains are 24 anathemas against various 4th-century heresies. Apollinaris The Younger and his father (Apollinaris the Elder) had reproduced the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry and the New Testament in the style of Platonic dialogues after the Roman emperor Julian had forbidden Christians to teach the classics.
Apollinaris the younger denied the existence in Christ of a rational human soul, a position he took to combat Arianism. Skilled in logic and Hebrew and a teacher of rhetoric, Apollinaris also lectured at Antioch c. 374. Their different ideas also brought forth several schisms.

Current Churches in a Torn Church World

It would not remain at all with these few schisms in the church community; in each century several schisms occurred. Today, many even regard certain breakaway groups as churches of the commons, such as the Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican Churches. They now belong to the generally accepted Protestant churches.

Lots of churches sought ways to get as many followers as they could, claiming that they are the only church by which people can be saved. They forget that it are no other human beings, than Christ Jesus who saves people of all races and people of all persuasions or from all walks of life. They claimed and still claim that their sacraments, religious signs or symbols, are the way to be saved. Many of those churches are convinced that their liturgy is the best one to prepare people to receive those sacraments, as visible symbols of the reality of God, as well as a channel for God’s grace and helps to understand what they are doing. Their liturgy is used to give the sacraments context and is there to allow folks to see them in action. Outside of the liturgy, the sacraments lose direction and application. For some that is the reason why a private baptism or communion is a sacrament without purpose or meaning.

It is a sacrament that is cut off from its intended goal. {The Role of the Church}

For non-Trinitarians, like the Christadelphians, there does not have to be a set of liturgical rules and order. Each church service can be done in a different order or different way. but what is most important is that the service is built upon the Word of God, and as such most time of the service should be spent on that Word, or readings from the Holy Scriptures and not on readings from human beings. Next to that Word of God people should be able to find, feel and see, that love of God and love of Christ present and shown by those people of that church.

The church is tasked with loving the Lord and loving its neighbor. The church takes what it receives from God and shares it with the world. Taken together, this means God acts through even-broadening layers to bring His grace into the world. {The Role of the Church}

Receiving God and being united with His son

But to receive God and to be united with God and His holy son, people have to do away with pagan or heathen teachings and traditions. In the Church of God, there can be no place for pagan rituals and false worship, like praying in front of pictures or sculptures. So, there has to be no place for crosses, paintings or portraits and statues of gods and saints, no idolisation taking place in the liturgy. Done away with a “Hail Zeus” or calling unto “YaiZeus” or JeZeus – Jezus or Jesus as a figure that would be three in one, a God the Father, a god the son and a God the Holy Spirit.

In case we want to hold on to that changed name of Jeshua, namely Jesus, that hopefully would be not too bad and shall be accepted by the Elohim Hashem Jehovah (That we can only hope and pray for – that he forgives us to use that name so that we shall be able to get others to get to know the Name of Jesus his God.) Better would naturally be that by the years coming closer to the end-times, people shall come to use more the real names of the Biblical characters and especially of Jehovah God, Whose Name is holy, and of the son of God, Jeshua ben Josef.

Sin is the opposite of God’s will, so to be a sinner means to be one who is opposed to God, who is an offense to everything God is. Sin is intolerable to God and so God destroys it, even if that means destroying the one who commits it. {Face to Face with God}

Having idols and false gods is “sin” because it goes in against the Will and Commandments of God. Real lovers of God have to keep tp those Commandments of God and not to the commandments, human doctrines or will of human beings.

Active in the world

In this picture, from a Lutheran pastor his site, you might see how far the church is gone away from God’s Word that forbids such pictures or reflections of people they call their god.

It is true that the Church or the community of believers has to be active in both worship and in the world so that God’s grace can reach those who need it.

This becomes the central work of the church and everything God does for His people is designed to facilitate that work. {The Role of the Church}

Though that does not mean the church has to think and act like the world! It is totally wrong to think you should be part of the Church of the world, because people have to be part of the Church of God of which Jesus is the foundation. Jesus should be the man whom we follow and whom we take as the cornerstone of our community.

“Jesus saith unto them,

Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes?” (Mt 21:42 ASV)

“being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;” (Eph 2:20 ASV)

Loving Christ is not only loving his word, it is living by his word that one fully accepts as a truthful word. And as such that one does not think when Jesus says God is greater than him that he (Jesus) is the greatest and that he can do everything because he would be God. all the thing Jesus did, we should appreciate and understand why he did it and how he wanted to be a faithful servant for God the same as he requires from his followers to be servants for man and for God.

Servants not doing bad things

Those who call themselves servants of God have to do their best to live according to the Will of God. In the last few decades, people should have had enough opportunities to see how many in those so-called churches of God have gone astray. In several Trinitarian denominations, being them Catholic or Protestant, we have seen that there were priests who used little children (boys and girls) to have sex with. Some churches thought that they could cover those paedophile acts by transferring those paedophiles to another church in another village. For centuries the Catholic Church has been a male bastion where male domination and tyranny were giving opportunities to defile the Name of God.

They thought to clean up the cesspool of sin in that religious structure, but the roots have gone very deep.

Furthermore many churches do not dare to speak out about certain Rules of God.

Sung Mass with the ordinations of two deacons and seven priests by the Bishop of Stockholm, in St Nicholas’s Cathedral (Storkyrkan)

In Europe’s largest Lutheran denomination, hundreds of clergies, staff, and congregates of the Church of Sweden, have declared, in an open letter that it is now a trans-inclusive institution.
While the hearts of the faithful Christians are broken, while heaven weeps, while the demons of hell dance in delight, the modern-day church is changed. Why? Because it is easier to change the local assembly than the eternal Word of God, which lives and abides forever. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

After all those centuries the Catholic church did not change one hair.

In Rome, the Vatican is now home to a woke Pope, who allowed South American animistic religious rituals in the opening of the recent pan-Amazon Synod. Kathy Clubb writes in the conservative Catholic publication, The Remnant:

“Idol worship was on full display in preparation for the Pan-Amazon synod, with the tacit approval of Pope Francis. Although the Synod hadn’t yet started, the celebration of pagan ceremonies added weight to the concerns being voiced by prominent prelates and laymen that the Synod will be a vehicle for apostasy.”

{It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Strangely enough, when the Pope says something which comes closer to the Biblical truth, all the hairs of Catholic and Protestant (Trinitarian) priests raise up to heaven.

To embracing idol worship, Pope Francis is said not to believe in the eternal divinity of Jesus as the Son of God. Instead,

“Pope Francis conceives the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, a man, not God incarnate. Once he took flesh, Jesus ceased to be a God and became a man until his death on the cross… {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Pope Francis has said to Eugenio Scalfari: ‘There is proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even a man of exceptional virtue, was in no way a God’.” (Mark Powell, CALDR@N POOL on the web; see also, Fatima Perspectives #1343) {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Several priest think wrongly that it would be changing Catholic dogma because the non-Trinitarians are gaining field in this world.

Why is the woke Pope Francis (b. Dec. 17, 1936), head of the Catholic Church, and sovereign of Vatican City, changing Catholic dogma?

Because it is easier to influence and change a vast religious institution than to change the Word of God, which says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Yes, the Bible is very clear about That! One may not have other gods before the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

Lots of those learned people do not want to see how a person can be divine but not God. (Perhaps you might have a divine wife, though we hope you would not worship her as a god.)

There is no such verse in the letter of Paul to Timothy that would say

Concerning the eternal divinity of Christ, the Bible says, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:18). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

The Bible words are as follows in the last verses of that letter:

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” (1Ti 3:16 ASV)

giving an indication that Jesus is one way to come to “see and understand God“. Him being manifested in the flesh is the son of God who “gave himself for us.” Truly they are in harmony. The love of the infinite God could neither be created nor purchased but it could be and is been shown through the work of His son. The Spirit of the Father was manifest in Jesus and by the inspiration and power given by God, Jesus was able to speak wise words and to do many miracles.

All those things which are clearly notated in Scriptures are not to confuse us, but to bring us light. Jesus should be such a light for us, a beacon or a lighthouse in the surf.

When looking at churches we should check how those who call themselves leaders of that church, behave. We should check in which way a church has its teachings in accordance with the Bible and how the leaders of that church live according to those Bible Words.

For sure we should not choose for the church that wants to be fully in line with the world and its traditions. From the Bible, we can learn that most of those traditions are not in line with God’s commandments and as lovers of God we should want to go fully doing the will of God in the same way Jesus put his own will aside to do the will of God. (Naturally, in case Jesus would have been God he would never have put his own will aside. … Is it not?)

“And he went forward a little, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying,

My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Mt 26:39 ASV)

“And again he went away, and prayed, saying the same words.” (Mr 14:39 ASV)

It is not Christ his will that shall be done on earth as in heaven. Also, Jesus prayed and learned others to pray that this Will of his heavenly Father would be fulfilled.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” (Mt 6:10 ASV)

Even in difficult times, Jesus asked his God that not his will was going to be fulfilled, but God His Will

“And he said,

Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mr 14:36 ASV)

We should know that like Jesus could not do anything without God, we too cannot do the important thing without our heavenly Father. (Though in fact even the little things we are only able to do because God allows them to happen.) Let us therefore not do our will, but have the courage to do like Jesus, going for the One Who had sent him, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, God His Word, God His Will and for God His Chuch, doing God His Will.

“I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 5:30 ASV)

“For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 6:38 ASV)

Preceding

A vital question for believers

The rock on which we stand

As near to God as you want Him to be

Religion and the essence of devotion – Necessary parts in the daily walk with God + Christians, Lutherans, Wesleyans, and other followers

Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation

After darkness a moment of life renewal

Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

Christians saying Jesus is God giving food for atheists to prove there exist no God

Responsibility bigger than those who talk about worldly matters

Additional reading

+++

Why does the Bible need 66 books? Part 2
Exquisite Uniqueness of God
“The Eve of Christmas,” Matthew 1:18-25
In the Incarnation, Humanity Received a New Dignity
The Incarnation
Incarnation and all that…
The Mystery of Godliness: The Transformative Power of the Incarnation
Incarnate Love
Truth-less “grace,” or grace-less “truth”?
Mystery and Clarity
John 1:1-14 Sermon: Love Incarnate, Love Divine
Adoption, incarnation, and growing in grace and truth (Growing Deeper with John 1:6-18)
John’s Gospel and the Word made flesh (Growing Deeper with John 1:1-5)
The Word Became Flesh. II: The Word Was God
God the son, Part 1
Epistle Reading for Sunday, January 30, 2022
Hebrews: Superiority of the Son
Creed // Jesus God’s son (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Today’s Scripture – November 15, 2021
All that he is triune
Trinity – Trilogy – Triplet
Definition of the day: Trinity
Trinity
Why a Triune God?
God Who Is—is Triune
Beyond Belief – What the Heck is the Trinity? Is God Three or Is He One?
There are certain Christian preachers who want people to believe that all Christians would believe in the Trinity. Why do Christians beleive in the Trinity? Such a question let us see that the writer of that article either is not aware of other Christians who only believe in a binary god and neglects the most important group which worship only the God of Jesus and not a god the son, namely the unitarians and non-Trinitarians.
Your Divine D.N.A. [Sermon]
Am I headed in the right direction? [Sermon]
The Incarnation in the Life of the Church
He Was, He Is, and Forever Shall Be
“The Word became Flesh,” John 1:14
“Simeon’s Song,” Luke 2:22-40
Statue Of Zeus At Olympia
False Gospels: On Blindness > Antics > Compromise
False Gods by Graham McNeill
Reenacting the Way of Jesus
Loving Christ Really IS Loving His Word
Poetic faith
How can Jesus be considered sinless when the Bible describes his anger
“Jesus in the Temple,” Luke 2:40-52
“Jesus, the Son of God,” Luke 4:31-44
Know Jesus, Know God
Hebrews: The Fulcrum
Direct Access to the Father
Do Denominations Divide Us?
Does Denominationalism Blind You to the Truth?
Nuanced beliefs
Deceived
Throwback Thursday ~ Finding a New Church- Starting from Scratch
Law; Is It For The Rich Or The Poor?
Division Among Christians
From One Religion To Another

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by Guestspeaker | 2022/02/09 · 6:37 pm

Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

In our previous article, we looked at one of the great possibilities of diversity in Christendom and Christianity, many ‘theologians‘ interpreting the bible and introducing human doctrines into their religious groups or churches.

In every church, we can find preachers telling the flock to do this or that and to believe this or that. In all those churches their clergy claims that they are showing the only One God, though many preach about a Triune or three-headed god, in contradiction to the Biblical teaching that there is Only One True God Who is a Singular Spirit Being no man can see.

When we hear the question

Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

we would say that each individual in a church or in a community of believers always should investigate what is really said in their community and always should compare the teachings of their leaders with what they can find in the Book of books, the Holy Scriptures or the Bible. To the above mentioned question, we would add

Who or what do you want to believe most, the Word of the Bible or the sayings of the priest, pastor or preacher of your church?

It is not cultural Christianity that “often suffocated authentic faith and facilitated superficial religion“, but it were those who went with the schism of 313 and the Nicene Creed, preferring to go for a triune god instead of keeping to the God of the Bible. First it was the Roman Catholic Church who ‘suffocated’ the real followers of Christ and even went after them to burn them at the stake. Later the protestants, instead of going back to the Biblical teachings continued in the tradition of the Catholic Church instructing their members the human doctrines instead of Biblical doctrines. They created rules and regulations which are not at all in the Bible. Some of them teach about dispensationalism, by which the seven dispensations and very names of the dispensations are also manufactured. Several protestant churches bring forth a system that contradicts the Scripture.

The System says the age of the Law lasted until the Day of Pentecost. The Bible says the Law and the prophets were until John – not Calvary. Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. {The Scriptures Versus the System}

Many churches also created a hierarchy and gave a special position to their leaders which is not described nor encouraged to have, according to the Scriptures. Some even go so far to place themselves in the place of the Jews, calling themselves the Chosen People of God, then forgetting that the Jews for ever will be the People of God.

Lots of churches do not spend much attention to what is really written in the bible. They seem to forget that divine illumination shall come to those who read the Bible and are willing to listen to God’s Voice. Though this requires are right attitude and our faith in those Sacred Writings. If we believe the Bible is the Word of God, and that the Bible is the ultimate authority over our lives then our eyes shall be opened and we shall come to see and understand what others are telling is according to the bible or not.

We always should trust God more than human beings and should refer to their sayings with the material we can find in the Holy Scriptures.

Theologians may do a lot to have you to believe that you would not be able to understand what is written in the Bible. Those implying that those without a PhD aren’t qualified to speak or write publicly about religion, are misleading the people and are wanting people to believe that God is partial and only wants to give insight to those who are learned. Those people who have gone to a theological college are closing ranks.

“It looks like clericalism… This kind of elitism may be more subtle than language of schisms and wounds and splits, but it has its own unpleasant implications.” {Who is qualified to write theology?}

However, one should know that God does not exclude anyone. Anyone can come to God, and Jehovah God is ready to nurture and provide insight to anyone who is open to receive His Wisdom.

The traditional goal of Christian theology might have been to develop a better understanding of God so that we could think and speak rightly about God within the context of a life governed by our faith in Christ and our discipleship to him in community with other Christians, but already for centuries the study of theology has concentrated more on the many writings of human beings who were priests, bishops or theologians, but only a few hours a week are given to the Word of God.

Under Christendom, politicians mouthed pieties they didn’t believe, and persons attended church for business contacts and socialising. Whilst in those churches those present did not hear so many words from Scripture, but got to hear lots of words written and said by human beings.

Lots of those speaking in church count more on those writers from the past instead of going by the anointed ones from God. They rely on the knowledge of their predecessors without questioning their words or comparing them with what is really in the Bible.

A bible student, Shawna N. writes

Some are so set on their interpretation that to suggest any new insight or different perspective will get you shot down pretty quick usually with scriptures that remind you that only God is God and we are not.

That we are but mere serveants who should not make ourselves out to be more than that. That we should not add or take away from the scriptures, that we should repent etc.etc.etc. and I think it has caused many to retreat and to isolate.

Many believe they have the Bible figured out. That their interpretation of the scriptures is the right interpretation and any challenge of it is to add to it or take away from it or that perhaps you are thinking you are higher than God.

The attitude and saying of certain preachers made people think about their church. This way lots of people left their church for what it is. Many do not attend church anymore, not because they cannot find one that worships the God of the Bible but because they cannot find a church of the Bible.

Shawna N. writes

I believe that it is crucial in studying Gods word to meditate on the scriptures. To slow way down and to meditate on every word in every scripture and to pray for God to help us to understand it .To know that our ways are not His ways our thoughts are not His thoughts .

Many of us grew up being taught that Jesus is going tocome crashing through the sky one day and thatbChristians will just vanish one day though the bible says that we are to Live by Faith Not by Site we are to expect a physical rapture and as long as we do and as long as we expect Jesus to show up in the physical to save the day the day will not be saved Is He not already with us and in us are we not His hands and feet?

Michael Hickenbotham, member of the Church of Jesus Christ for over 65 years the above first mentioned question a good question. He writes

I believe we all, even the most devoted disciples, lean to our own understanding most of the time. The phrase is found in Proverbs 3:5:

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3

Notice that the verse starts with “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart”. If we always do that first, the second part of the verse will take care of itself. Trust or faith in the Lord needs to the primary guiding principle in all the important decisions in our lives.

In order for us not to lean to our own understanding, we need to be influenced by and follow the inspiration of Lord through the Holy Spirit all the time. For most of us, that seems to be more a goal than a commandment.

Not relying on the arm of flesh (Jer. 17:5; 2 Cor. 5:7; 2 Nephi 4:34; D&C 1:19) is another way of saying the same thing.

Benson’s Commentary indicates that we should

“Wholly and securely rely upon God’s wisdom, power, and goodness, and upon his providence and promises, for direction and help in all thine affairs and dangers. Lean not to thine own understanding

— Think

And that thinking is what a lot of people prefer not to do. They expect others to think for them and to take action for them. In many churches we can find lots of passive members, just sitting quiet, following the Sunday service, never reacting to what is said in church by that one who is standing in front or on the pulpit.

Michael Kern, B.A. Applied Linguistics & Biblical Languages, Moody Bible Institute replies affirmative to the question if we should question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible

Absolutely! The pastor’s first and foremost responsibility is to lead his congregation. If he is leading them down the wrong path, then he is failing at his job. Those in positions of great authority are held greatly accountable for their leadership.

I will say this, though: he may be teaching something that is biblical, even if you don’t see it. Some Scriptures are very difficult to interpret, and we have multitudes of different doctrines and denominations to prove it.

Before you challenge your pastor, take the time to research the subject yourself. You may find that he knew what he was talking about. If you find that the subject doesn’t align with Scripture in any way that you can see, then there is a likely chance that he is leading you astray.

If that’s the case, I would advise approaching your pastor one-on-one and asking him how he came to the doctrine in question. Maybe his explanation will make sense, maybe it won’t. Have a discussion with him and try to reach a consensus on the issue regarding what he has been teaching.

If he absolutely refuses to listen to biblical proof that he is wrong, and can provide no satisfactory answer for his teachings, then you move on to the last resort: bring your findings to the elders of the church, and ask them to speak with him. If all else fails, disciplinary action may need to be taken.

Sheryl Powell replies

If they are lovers of truth and they come across scripture that contradict what they have heard something is wrong. Now they may have it wrong and need to be adjusted with proper scriptures. If that is not the case and the ideology of the Pastor is wrong, perhaps it is time to seek love elsewhere.

The Catholic Sister Julie Distel her idea is that

church members of any denomination should free to question, in my opinion. I would suggest questioning in the proper environment – perhaps an appointment – not challenging the preacher during a service!

Now be mindful that some Christian groups, particularly the Catholic Church, has always honored tradition as a valid and rich source for our faith. Many condemn this and will quote Scripture about “no source but the Bible.” That is their belief and God bless them. We believe differently – and God bless us too.

Preceding

If the Bible tells us not to lean upon our own understanding, are preachers, and Bible professors, leaning upon the theirs’?

When looking for God or wanting to relate to the Most High Divine God

Rhetoric and Biblical Truth

7 Ways To Become A Better Christian

Additional reading

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by Guestspeaker | 2022/02/09 · 2:05 pm

If the Bible tells us not to lean upon our own understanding, are preachers, and Bible professors, leaning upon the theirs’?

In our world, there are lots of people who consider themselves the only appropriate people to talk about the Bible, because they have studied at the university of theology and/or philosophy. The clergy with their priests and pastors in a variety of denominations all try to convince those coming into their church, that their church is the only true one.

Though we can find lots of denominations in Christendom, of which there are many where the clergy are not exactly behaving like Christ Jesus instructed. In Why there are so many denominations in Christendom we tried to give a short answer to a question many times posed. What is striking about many denominations in Christianity (or better: in Christendom) is that often not much attention is paid to the biblical texts. It is as if the Bible is only a small faits divers within religion.

The absence or minimisation of biblical content means that by paying more attention to human doctrines, more conflicts have also arisen, leading to splits in groups and thus to the emergence of multiple denominations.

So the question may be asked, why is it that the clergy of these denominations do not resort to the Book of Books, which can indeed give them the best information and teachings?

At the question:

If the Bible tells us not to lean upon our own understanding, are preachers, and Bible professors, leaning upon the theirs’?

We think that is the whole problem in Christendom, people leaning upon their own understanding, following more the philosophical and theoretical theologian writings of human beings instead of going by what is written black on white in the Holy Scriptures.

D. Paul Walker, An Elder with many years in the faith, writes

Many reject the teaching of the Bible based on their own faulty belief such as that something is impossible when the Bible says there is nothing impossible for God.

According to Theodore Tsistinas

the understanding of the bible is plain to those who read it with the purpose of not challenging it. That’s why the language has been changed from time to time because people wanted their own opinion to be expressed. The entire bible is the history of the people of God from the Jews to the Christians. There is one god spoken of in the bible. Its people and their personal interpretation that has challenge the understanding spoken very clearly in scripture. But then stupid is what stupid does and the mass of humanity would rather listen to the opinions of men rather that the wisdom of God.

Michael Ballai writes

There’s a certain amount of, hopefully, Biblical understanding that a student of the Bible can readily bring to a given text of scripture or how the Bible explains an appropriate worldview. I know stuff after more than three decades that are bedrock to the Bible and I have no intention of putting my personal two cents in on what God says.I revisit passages regularly and seek to consider them afresh each time because I know there is more in there than I have seen previously. People who are lazy simply deprive themselves of the depth of treasure.God is perfectly ok with how an individual preacher chooses to explain something in their own style as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the message.A preacher is called to cut it straight. It lines up with God’s understanding. The reason we do it is to tell it according to the way God sees it. And that is how God wants to sanctify us in getting us to line up our understanding with Him.

Scott Bissell sees one of the difficulties in what we think is a major issue in many churches, namely when they quote half a verse, or as we would add, take just part of a verse and use it out of context. In case people would check more what is taught at their church with was is written in the Bible, more people would grow closer to a unity of Bible-reading people.We may not forget that the attitude to the Bible is of paramount importance.Robert Hoge reacts to this by writing

Scripture is subject to endless interpretation, some of which is purely tendentious. I recently got a comment from someone who was gushing over the Bible as the greatest collection of symbolism in the world, or something to that effect. My own principle when reading and teaching the Bible comes out of a book I read long ago but no longer own:“When the literal meaning makes sense, seek no other meaning.”Not only does this save a lot of effort, it also ensures that we don’t add or take away anything. Rev. 22:18–19 says,“18 I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,19 and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”For all I’m concerned, these last words of the Bible apply to the whole of the Bible, not just to its last book, Revelation.

That warning may make it very difficult to teachers of the Word of God, preachers and/or pastors, having them to be very careful what they say and how they say it. They always should control if their teaching is in accordance with the teaching of the Bible.For those who read the Scriptures, there is the danger that they got into the trap of their church to which they belong and that they cannot do away of their own indoctrinations or doctrines of their own church. They are so used to think in the same way as their church teaches that it has become very difficult to read the words like they are written in the Bible. For example when there is written in the bible about Jesus “the son of God“, many read “god the son“, which is something totally different from what there is written and from what God said on several occasions when He declared Jesus to be His only begotten beloved son.According Michael Abernathy

most people approach the Scripture with a certain bias. Before they even open their Bible, they have creeds and denominational positions that they force upon a text. On the other hand, most of the preachers I know spend a great deal of time searching the Scripture and praying for God’s enlightenment. Yes, they use their minds to help them understand what God has written. But anyone who says they don’t do that is either lying or deluded.

Matthew Heady likes to extend the above question and asks

Does not everyone, including the questioner “lean” on others? Why restrict the question to just preachers and professors?What the biblical teaching refers to is not facts and conclusions which are known to or drawn from the minds of humans. The biblical teaching refers to how a person is actually informed about the Triune God of the Bible.

Here in his answer already gives a big sign of how he himself fell for the human doctrinal teaching, because in the Bible there is no such information on a Trinity, though there is a clear teaching we may have no other gods than the Divine Creator God, Who is a Singular eternal (= having no birth + no death) all-knowing Spirit Being Who is the Almighty God above all gods.Heady continues

There is nothing a sinful human being with a corrupt (and limited) understanding and reason of all things may do. There is not any thought, word, or action, that will allow a person to recognize the Triune God, they may only realize that a god is, but not the Triune God.

People when willing to give their full attention to the Words of the Bible, shall come to see clear and understand that there is no such thing to worship as a three-headed god. There may be many gods in the world but people should only keep to that Only One True God God of gods of the Bible, Jehovah, Who is the God of Israel.

It is this knowledge of God, revealed in His Word, the Holy Scriptures, that is what a person must “lean” on. Not the thought and practices of humans. They will get us nowhere. Our minds come into play after we are gifted by faith in Christ and are then able to properly understand and explain to others Biblical teaching and practices.

writes Matthew Heady.

Continues with: Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

Preceding

Confrontation by people telling lies to force others to avoid the targetted groups

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Many opportunities given by God

Christian denominations as pots in the desert

Having to learn and benefit from other Christian denominations

Preaching as Public Speaking

Maybe it is About Me

Hitler and Christianity: Some Trends in Interpretation

Additional reading

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Tagged as Bible, Bible reading, Biblical content, Biblical teaching, Biblical teachings, Biblical text, Biblical understanding, Christendom, Christian denominations, Christianity, Church, Churches, Clergy, Creed(s), Denominational positions, Denominations, Human doctrines, Interpretation of the Bible, Knowledge of God, leaning upon own Understanding, Matthew Heady, Michael Abernathy, Michael Ballai, Opinions of men, Paul Walker, Reading the Bible, Religion, Robert Hoge, Scott Bissell, Teaching of the Bible, Theodore Tsistinas, Theology, Understanding of the Bible

by Guestspeaker | 2022/01/20 · 7:47 am

Beyond the Culture Wars

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Find also to read

Andrew McWilliams-Doty looks at evangelicals

How the term Evangelical has grown to blur theology and ideology

Which Christians Actually Evangelize

Is it Time to Abandon “Evangelical?”

Jared Stacy

This is the final article in a series reflecting on American Culture Wars & Christianity. Here are parts one, two, and three.

Culture War Christianity must end. Christians should be the ones to end it. Like Moses, whose first attempt to bring about change left an Egyptian dead in the sand, so Culture Warring Christianity tends to create chaos and call it ‘change’.

Calling for the end of Culture War Christianity is not a call to stop working for change. But, I admit, it does sound a bit idealist. How do you end the culture wars anyway? Do we leave society for monastic communities? That is an option. Do we embrace with resignation a Christianity domesticated by secular idealogy? That is the fear of many. And, acting on that fear, many seek to defend Christianity.

But, what if the Christianity some aim to defend has already been…

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Tagged as American evangelicalism, American pastorate, American Religion, Christian Theology, Christian worldview, Christianity, Christians, Clergy, Cross, Culture War, Culture War Christianity, Culture War combat, Culture War discipleship, Cynicism, Evangelicalism, Frederick Douglass, Idolatry of country, Insurrection at the Capitol, Ivan Illich, Jared Stacy, Jesus, John Wayne evangelicalism, Kingdom of God, Millennials, Monastic communities, Pragmatism, Race and ethnicity, Relationship to the world, Sexual ethics, Tags:American Christianity, Temptation of Christ, White America, White Americans

by Guestspeaker | 2021/10/14 · 11:40 am

The German Christian Rally at Berlin’s Sportspalast, 28 February 1934: Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller, Dr. Christian Kinder Respond to the Kirchenkampf

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Preceding

Hitler and Christianity: Some Trends in Interpretation

Ryan Buesnel

From: Ryan Buesnel, The German Christian Rally at Berlin’s Sportspalast, 28 February 1934: Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller, Dr. Christian Kinder Respond to the Kirchenkampf, Journal of Church and State, , csaa103, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/csaa103

On February 28, 1934, about twenty thousand members of the various German Christian movements and their supporters gathered at Berlin’s Sportpalast to hear speeches given by theologians and clergy who supported Hitler and the Nazi movement. The purpose of the gathering was threefold. Firstly, the meeting functioned as a propagandistic exercise in virtue-signaling. As a movement that went to considerable lengths to publicly demonstrate its endorsement of the Third Reich, German Christian gatherings such as this one were marked by their outward displays of Nazi ideology, ritual, and imagery. Secondly, this rally served an educational purpose. In the speeches given by movement leaders, German Christian pastors and laypeople had their support of the Nazis legitimized on theological…

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Tagged as 1930, 1933, 1934, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Aryan Law, Aryan Paragraph, Barmen Declaration, Barmen-Gemarke, being German, Bolshevism, Christian Kinder, Christian state, Christianity, Church life, Denunciation of ecclesiastical status quo, Deutsche Christen (German Christians), Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, Evangelical churches, Faith Movement of German Christians, Free Reformed Synod, Freedom of the gospel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, German, German blood and soil, German Christian movement, German Christian movements, German Christian pastor(s), German church, German Evangelical Church, German Evangelical Churches, German Pastors’ Emergency League = Pfarrernotbund, German people, German Protestant Church, German Protestantism, Germanization, Germanness, Germans, Herbert Golzten, Joachim Hossenfelder, Judaism, Karl Barth, Kirchenkampf, Klaus Scholder, Kurt Meier, Landeskirchen (regional churches), Lordship of Christ over the church, Ludwig Müller, Martin Luther, Martin Niemöller, National Socialism, National Socialist German Workers' Party = Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), Nazi government, Nazi hierarchy, Nazi ideology, Nazi policy, Nazi rule, Nazified Christianity, Nazism, Neo-pagan Christianity, Otto Dibelius, Political theology, Positives Christentum = positive Christendom, Pro-Nazi factions, Protestant church, Protestantism, Prussian General Synod, Reformation, Reich Church, Reinhold Krause, Roman Catholicism, Ryan Buesnel, Schleswig-Holstein Church, Senate of the Prussian Church, Shelley Baranowski, Sportpalast Berlin, Supraconfessionalism, Theses (Walter Grundmann), Third Reich, Völkisch movement, Volksgemeinschaft = people’s community, Walter Grundmann

by Guestspeaker | 2021/10/14 · 11:28 am

Hitler and Christianity: Some Trends in Interpretation

Ryan Buesnel

A question was recently put to me by a reader who was curious to hear my thoughts on whether Hitler should be considered a “Christian” or an “atheist.” What had spurred this on was this reader’s consideration of the somewhat ambiguous topic of “Positive Christianity” — the allegedly Aryanized form of Christian doctrine that was to have served as National Socialism’s official form of religion.

Issues surrounding Hitler’s views on the person of Jesus Christ and the institution of the church are frequently obscured by prior ideological or religious commitments. On the one hand are those who have sought to restore the integrity of Christianity in light of accusations that it played an important historic role in the justification for anti-Semitism. This process of reconstruction required identifying occasions where Nazi ideology was opposed to the normative framework of Christian ethics. The suggestion was that the outcomes of Nazi policy were…

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Tagged as 1930s, 1980s, Abolition of the churches, Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Alfred Rosenberg, Anti-Semitism, Aryanised form of Christian doctrine, Atheists, Being Christian, Catholic Church, Christendom, Christian ethics, Christian tradition, Christianity, Denominational affiliation, German Christian movement, German church, German religious history, German society, Germanic religion, Hegelianism, Heinrich Himmler, Ideological commitments, Institution of the church, Integrity of Christianity, John S. Conway, Joseph Goebbels, Judaism, Mein Kampf (My Struggle - political manifesto by Adolf Hitler), National Socialism, National Socialists, Nazi ideology, Nazi policy, Nazism, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Religious commitments, Ryan Buesnel, Third Reich, Worship of God

by Guestspeaker | 2021/07/29 · 5:57 pm

5 ways America changed God

In the period of our present time system (Gregorian Calendar), the world has done everything to change God.

The majority of America’s churches teach that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. though when they would look at the person many take as their god and the God of the Bible, you would expect them to see that they are totally different entities. One is an Eternal Allknowing Spirit God, not having birth nor death, and having no flesh, bones or blood, and Who can not be seen by man. The other person they take for god, is called the son of God in the Bible, and was born and seen by many people. That man of flesh, bones and blood also had to learn everything and at the end of his life still did not know a lot of things; He even did not know when he would be coming back or when the Last Days would take place, which would be very important and not to be missed moments for all people.

Lots of Christians and certainly lots of Americans do not seem to see those differences between those two Biblical characters. Considering their country’s near-400-year history, can we honestly say that their concepts and perceptions about God haven’t evolved?

In a column for CNN, Matthew Paul Turner wonders if the contemporary American God is the same as in 1629, when the Puritans began organizing a mass exodus toward their “Promised Land”?

He writes:

Is our modern God the same as in 1801, when Christians at a revival in Kentucky became so filled up with God’s spirit that they got down on all-fours and barked and howled like wild dogs?

More recently, is our God the same as in 2000, when born again Republican George W. Bush won (sort of) the presidential election by rallying America’s then thriving evangelical electorate with a Jesus-tinged GOP rhetoric he called “compassionate conservatism.”

The truth is, no. God is likely not exactly the same as God was yesterday, not here in the United States, not among America’s faithful. Here, God changes.

According Matthew Paul Turner the American’s making God into their own image isn’t a new trend. He recognises that they’ve been changing God since Anglo Saxons first stepped foot onto these shores of the New World. He gives five examples.

1. The Puritans’delusions, who had the idea that God had chosen them and ordained their prosperity before the foundations of the Earth.
2. God creates evangelicals. One of the biggest influences of the Great Awakening was how God altered the way he interacted with America’s people.
3. America falls in love with Jesus. Looking at Baptist and Methodist, congregations which boasted a more laid-back approach to worship and faith as opposed to the stuffy religiosity of Congregational and Anglican gatherings. – The simpler approach to Christianity that Methodists and Baptists offered would eventually be tested by the nation’s debate over slavery, a conflict that divided America’s churches long before it divided a nation.
4. America’s apocalyptic obsession In the decades after the Civil War, America’s Jesus-focused Christianity led to John Nelson Darby’s apocalyptic-heavy theology, dispensationalism. Among evangelicals, dispensationalism also cultivated a culture of fear, defensiveness and carelessness about helping a “doomed world.”
5. The Billy Graham effect As the country sought healing after World War II, Americans began searching for hope in the God-smorgasbord that Christianity had laid out, from Bible-believing fundamentalism to Holy Ghost-inspired Pentecostalism, from education-minded Roman Catholicism to progressive-leaning high church spiritualism.

He remarks

Today, most Christians can’t distinguish between God and GOD®, which has made America’s deity into a superpower, an almighty deity that can be mixed with just about anything, from enterprise to politics, from hate campaigns to promises of prosperity.

Here in America, God is constantly changing. It’s a divine story that we edit and manipulate—sometimes innocently and sometimes intentionally—into our own narratives.

Evangelicals: For The Love Of Trump

For many Christians in Europe, it is unbelievable how it was possible that Donald Trump got such a liking and followers in the Christian camp.
We are curious how they would now look at that wolf in sheepskin.

The pictures we keep receiving from America let us wonder how it comes that so many Americans who claim to be Christian can still be so racist and are not able to bring forward brotherly love for those who have another opinion and other religion than theirs.

As the writing of this leader of some church networks and charities may insinuate lots of Europeans may have lost their belief in the Land of Freedom and of the Christian spirit racing through the United States of America, once having been a great nation, but now with and after Trump, having lost all credibility.

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To remember

not US citizens = bewildered by overwhelming support US Evangelicals > President Donald Trump.

sensationalism + rising division within US =/= subsided = Evangelical’s persistent fixation with Trump => growing tension .

Am. Evangelicals + Donald Trump = strange bedfellows > Donald Trump = extension of God or = guardian of American Christian Culture = deeply flawed confidence.

Furthermore for them to continue to encourage that notion and put their faith in him, even after Trump losing an authenticated, legal, and fair election is unimaginable but nonetheless foreseeable.

Trump regularly warned rally attendees that “Christianity is under siege.” + suggested > forces “chipping away at Christianity,” + accused Democrats of waging a war on Christmas.

US Evangelicals modeled a faith in God that came alongside governments + institutions regardless of party in leadership.

showed admirable confidence in public system + prayerfully supported their leaders. > changed = terms Evangelical + Republican = synonymous.

declining Christian population within US + subsequent weakening Christian culture => understated fear amongst white Evangelicals.

Trump guaranteed Evangelicals pushback against insurgence of immigration, abortion, and socialism.

world viewed Trump = bigot, racist, bully, slanderer, liar, autocrat, narcissist, + swindler, wild Maverick,

believing in Trump, Evangelicals > flagrant discrimination, deception, subversion, injustice, intimidation, preferentialism, + irresponsibility on multiple levels.

Evangelicals mostly ignored Trump’s dreadful behaviour > US Evangelicals flirting with Christian Nationalism => testimony now joined to Donald Trump’s secular agenda.

patriotism + spiritual faith entangled + left unchecked = state religion that coerces religious values through laws = anti-bible.

God’s Kingdom =/= need democracy or autocracy to increase + =/= need capitalism, socialism, or communism to survive. =/= left / right / liberal / conservative / green.

Kingdom = richness + flavour of Christ in us > moving forward because of passionate commitment of God, regardless of where we live and what type of government we have.

Through association with Trump, white Evangelicals have been complicit in stoking the fear and sedition that we now see within the USA. They have enabled him and left him unchecked. Very few Evangelical leaders have publicly spoken with the courage of the likes of Senator Mitt Romney, Beth Moore and John Piper.

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Evangelicals & Seduction > Evangelicals & Seduction

Stephen Best

By Stephen Best

I possibly, like others who are not US citizens, am bewildered by the overwhelming support that US Evangelicals have shown President Donald Trump. Prior to the 2020 presidential election, eighty-two percent of white American evangelicals were prepared to further Trump’s reign.[1] (See [2])

As a father and grandfather to US citizens, and as a concerned ally for our southerly neighbors, I am both surprised and troubled that the sensationalism and rising division within the US has not subsided. This growing tension is partly due to the Evangelical’s persistent fixation with Trump. In other words Evangelical Christians are partly at fault for the existing turmoil.

Evangelicals and Donald Trump are strange bedfellows. To see Donald Trump as an extension of God or as the guardian of American Christian Culture is a deeply flawed confidence. Furthermore for them to continue to encourage that notion and put their…

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Tagged as 45th president of the United States, America, American citizens, American evangelicals, Beth Moore, Christian culture, Christian nationalism, Christianity, Donald Trump, Faith in God, Immigration, Jentezen Franklin, John Piper, Kingdom of God, Mitt Romney, Patriotism, Republicans, Tanya Smith Brice, The Christian Chronicle (magazine), Trumpism, United States of America, White Evangelicals

by Guestspeaker | 2020/12/11 · 7:50 pm

Religion and the essence of devotion

Necessary parts in the daily walk with God

A proud Christ-follower who believes that we are all on a journey in life writes:

Religion is the essence of devotion. Our religious activities are to be an outpouring our our absolute devotion to God. Religion and relationship are necessary parts in the daily walk with God. And in speaking of religion in this way we can get a better glimpse at Christianity in a global sense. There are many traditions throughout Christendom that seem quite strikingly different than what any one of us may be used to, but they are simply unique ways to express the relational devotion we have to God. {The R&R of Christianity}

In the previous two writings, we talked about people who have a very restricted view of what a Christian would or should be. Lots of Christians are convinced that people who do not believe the human doctrine of the Trinity may not or can not call themselves Christian. They forget that the word Christian is made up of “Christ” and the suffix” ian”, denoting a follower of Christ. Then they should come to see and know who Christ is. For non-Trinitarians Christ is the Nazarene Jewish master teacher (or rebbe) Jeshua ben Yosef, Jesus the son of Mary (Miriam) and Joseph, born in Bethlehem. The word Christian gives an indication that it is about a follower of Christ or Kristos, the anointed Messiah. Naturally, it depends on what or whom, one wants to accept as a “follower”.

Christians, Lutherans, Wesleyans, and other followers

Normally a follower is considered to be someone who believes in a particular system of ideas, or who supports a leader who teaches these ideas. In the case of Christians it are people who follow the opinions or teachings of Christ Jesus, in particular, those teachings notated in the Messianic Scriptures (or New Testament: the four gospels and writings of the apostles and the revelation of St. John).

As the world accepts a Lutheran is a follower of Luther or a ‘belonger’ or accessory and supporter of the Lutheran community or Lutheranism, around that what was started by the German theologian and religious reformer who was the catalyst of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. When we speak about a Lutheran we think of a person of or relating to the religious doctrines of Martin Luther, or relating to the Protestant denomination adhering to these doctrines. especially the doctrine of Sola fide or justification by faith alone.

According to similar usage, a Christian is a follower or someone who has a strong interest or pays close attention to Jesus Christ and is willing to follow his guidance, command, or leadership. For that guidance of Christ the person must Not follow the rules of other human beings, but can follow the trusted Word like it is notated in the Holy Scriptures.

A Lutheran should follow the writings of Luther, but when we look at the Lutheran Church we can see there are a lot of changes in that church which would not be liked by Luther (take for example the role of the women in that church today.) With Christians we see a similar gross deviation from the teachings of the teacher Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus leading his followers out of a system of oppression

It should not be forgotten that Jesus came along to lead his followers out of the ungodly Roman system. He also wanted to show to Jews and non-Jews how important it is to come back to the Divine Creator and to worship only One True God instead of the many gods of that time. Jesus was a very devout Jew, who did not worship himself (as several name Christians want us to believe). Jesus remained faithful all his life to the God of Israel, Who is a Singular Eternal Omniscient Supreme Spirit Being. No man can see God, but Jesus wanted everybody to figuratively come to see God and to accept Him as their heavenly Father.

There was not only the Roman oppressor; there were also the priests, Pharisees and Sadducees, who wanted to have power over the people. Like many theologians today, they too wanted to make Scriptures more complicated than they really are. Jesus explained the scrolls and showed how people have to live more to the spirit of the letter, than to the interpretation of those temple workers. Jesus also preached an alternative form of government, speaking of a jurisdiction outside the Roman state, based on the perfect law of freedom, outside the tyranny of men who would rule over their brothers and neighbours. He first chose Jewish people who believed in One Singular God, (the God of the Jews), the God of Abraham, Who is One and not two or three. A real Jew never would agree with the Trinity. At first, the people who joined the Jewish sect (or group) the Way, were all Jehudiem or Jews who did not betray their Jewish faith. It was only later when goyim or people from other nations, cultures and other faiths started joining the group of followers of Christ, problems raised under the Jewish community, of which many did not want non-Jews in their ranks and in their synagogues or prayer houses.

First-century Christians

The Way to God

Jesus always said people had not to thank him but God. He always said he was less than God, but that he was the way for people to come to God and the way to life, and that people should believe in him and be in union with him, like he is in union with God.

“I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (Joh 10:9 KJ21)

“But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”” (Joh 10:38 KJ21)

“Jesus said unto him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (Joh 14:6 KJ21)

“9 Jesus said unto him, “Have I been so long a time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.”

“12 Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth in Me, the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father. 13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

“15 “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever” 17 even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. But ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

“18 “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me. Because I live, ye shall live also. 20 At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.”” (Joh 14:9-21 KJ21)

“that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” (Joh 17:21 KJ21)

“by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Ro 5:2 KJ21)

“for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Eph 2:18 KJ21)

“by a new and living Way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil (that is to say, His flesh),” (Heb 10:20 KJ21)

Following teachings based on Jesus his teachings

In the first century of this common era, more and more people came to follow the apostles their teachings, which were based on those of their master teacher Jeshua (Jesus Christ). They all agreed with the teachings of Jesus and became unified, forming the early Christian church with a system of charity, hope and respect for the rights of each other, requiring that each person would love their neighbour as themselves in a system of mutual, not governmental support.
Those joining the movement of The Way did agree to those Jewish teachings of Jesus and his apostles. For them, it was also clear that Jesus was showing a way to untangle people from the captivity of the social contracts they had made with the state of Rome and Judea, and the tribute and obligations they had become snared by. He proclaimed to call no man “Father”, as they called their Roman benefactors, but stated that the One Who made them alive is their Father Who is in heaven. The perfect law of freedom indicated that man’s unalienable rights stemmed from God and nature, and not governments of men. This was a system of anarchy, by strict definition, without the complex system of tribute that led to the decadence and decline of society, and the corruptible force of the state to back it up.

Not believing in a different God than the Jews

The early Christian church was not persecuted for their belief in a different God or a Kingdom in Heaven, but for their opting out of the mutual taxation system and seeking to live apart from the kings and overlords, the gods many, who demanded their tribute.

Path to walk

For those early followers of Christ it was important to give worship to the same God Jesus worshipped and to leave all those other gods at the side, non touched and not glorified. For them, it was clear that all glory belonged to God. They knew they had not to bow down in front of graven images, and always had to keep their soul diligently, all the time loving Jehovah as their God of gods, and not somebody else. It was also clear they, like God’s People (the Jews), had to walk in God His ways and not following human traditions which were not according to God’s Will, for they had to keep Jehovah God His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances. Their devotion should fully be for Jehovah God and not for any other god, be it the Caesar, Baal, Apollo, Zeus or any other. Those who were drawn away, and came to worship other gods, and came to serve them, were turning aside from the way which Jesus and his God have commanded mankind. Though God warned already in the past that the world would turn away from God and shall have false worship. He warned that evil will befall mankind in the latter days; because they will do that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger through the work of their hands.

“”Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach them to thy sons and thy sons’ sons,” (De 4:9 KJ21)

“16 in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply; and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. 17 But if thine heart turn away so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,” (De 30:16-17 KJ21)

“For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”” (De 31:29 KJ21)

“For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” (Ps 96:5 KJ21)

“He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul, but he that despiseth His ways shall die.” (Pr 19:16 KJ21)

“Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” (1Co 7:19 KJ21)

A God demanding exclusive devotion

Today we see how lots of people have made or taken themselves other gods than the Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah. Even from those who call themselves “Christian” there are many who bow down in front to graven images or kisses books and pictures as a sign of their devotion. They should know that Jehovah God requires exclusive devotion.

“But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen whither they went.” (Eze 36:21 KJ21)

“”Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: Now will I bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for My holy name” (Eze 39:25 KJ21)

“God is jealous, and the LORD avengeth; the LORD avengeth and is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies.” (Na 1:2 KJ21)

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, the LORD thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me,” (Ex 20:5 KJ21)

“For thou shalt worship no other god; for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God,” (Ex 34:14 KJ21)

“For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” (De 4:24 KJ21)

“And Joshua said unto the people, “Ye cannot serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins:” (Jos 24:19 KJ21)

“And further, my son, by these words be admonished: of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness to the flesh.” (Ec 12:12 KJ21)

“For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: ‘To the Unknown God’. Whom therefore ye worship in ignorance, Him I declare unto you.” (Ac 17:23 KJ21)

The God greater than Jesus

Jesus not able to do anything without God

Jesus, his talmidim and the apostle Paul declared The God Who is greater than Jesus and without Him Jesus could not do anything.

“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, “Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (Joh 5:19 KJ21)

“Ye have heard how I said unto you, ‘I go away and come again unto you.’ If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said, ‘I go unto the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.” (Joh 14:28 KJ21)

Jesus submissive to his God

Jesus his disciples also knew and wanted others to know that even their master was submissive to God and also submitted to Him whom he beheld as the only True God.

“5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death—even the death of the cross.” (Php 2:5-8 KJ21)

“But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.” (1Co 11:3 KJ21)

“And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son Himself also be subject unto Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” (1Co 15:28 KJ21)

The churches and gods of man

But today many have several gods, like “material possession” (Mammon) or find themselves under slothful tribute to an emperor and a system that is not for their benefit. For many, their eye and worship is on material goods or on people who can gloriously show off their acquired wealth. Many covet their neighbour’s goods in a vain pursuit of “free” health care, education, welfare, unemployment benefits, social security and government protection. They have traded their inalienable God-given rights through social contracts both implied and explicit. Their churches are not ordained by God, but are corporations granted status by the state. Many want even bigger churches and want to spread hate for those churches which do not want to align with them. In many of those main churches they denounce the followers of whom they consider an anarchist, because for them Jesus is God and all who contradict that are not just contradictors but objectionable individuals. Those Trinitarians do not want to see that real followers of Christ have to be like Christ, united with Jesus and be one with him the same way as Jesus is one with God.

God in Christians

For real followers of Christ, there is the belief that God is in all of them, and that they have to attract others to come also under Christ, to become children of God.

“3 Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, so we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this: that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Ro 6:3-7 KJ21)

“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1Co 15:49 KJ21)

“But because of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who from God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption,” (1Co 1:30 KJ21)

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2Co 5:17 KJ21)

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Ga 6:15 KJ21)

United in Christ serving the God of Christ

Those in Christ should be united and serve the same God Jesus served. They should fully be devoted to Jehovah God, having no other gods than Him. Real Christians are those willing to have only One God and to study His Word, His ordinances so that they too can do God’s Will, like Jesus did not his own will but did the Will of his heavenly Father and asked his followers also to do the Will of his heavenly Father, Jehovah God. In case Jesus is God he naturally would always have done his own will and then he was all the time misleading people and praying to himself.

Jesus not knowing many who call themself Christian

Several people, calling themselves Christian forget that at the end times, when they would be coming in front of Christ, there could be a possibility that Jesus shall say not to know them, because they did not do the Will of his Father. To call oneself Christian or to become part of the Body of Christ one has to do the Will of God and be as a brother or sister of Christ Jesus and those following him.

“But the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s.” (Le 27:21 KJ21)

“And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.” (Ec 1:13 KJ21)

“”Not every one that saith unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in Heaven.” (Mt 7:21 KJ21)

“For whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in Heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother.”” (Mt 12:50 KJ21)

“And He went a little farther, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”” (Mt 26:39 KJ21)

“He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, unless I drink it, Thy will be done.”” (Mt 26:42 KJ21)

“For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother.”” (Mr 3:35 KJ21)

“And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee. Take away this cup from Me; nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt.”” (Mr 14:36 KJ21)

“And that servant, who knew his lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” (Lu 12:47 KJ21)

“saying, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done.”” (Lu 22:42 KJ21)

“Jesus said unto them, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” (Joh 4:34 KJ21)

“38 For I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. 39 And this is the Father’s will who hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the Last Day. 40 And this is the will of Him that sent Me: that every one who seeth the Son and believeth in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day.”” (Joh 6:38-40 KJ21)

“but bade them farewell, saying, “I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God wills.” And he sailed from Ephesus.” (Ac 18:21 KJ21)

“Take them and purify thyself with them, and bear their charges with them, that they may shave their heads; and all may know that those things of which they have been informed concerning thee are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the law.” (Ac 21:24 KJ21)

Picking and choosing like a kid

Lots of people who call themselves “Christian” not at all follow the teachings of Jesus and pick and choose texts from Sriptures how it soots them best.

But you don’t pay attention to that do you my little lambs? No, you pick and choose like a kid going through a candy store deciding what to spend his quarters on. You choose what fits your sick sense of morality, and then toss the rest like it never existed. The fact that you become utter hypocrites apparently doesn’t bother you. Neither does the fact that it doesn’t fit my morality. But you care just as much about my definition of morality as I do yours. The only difference between us, is I’m not forcing you to try to live by my morality. {Of Christianity and Modern Morality}

rightly remarks someone who calls himself The Bastards 2013 (Where The Bastards come to share the word!) He, like lots of atheists saw how a bunch of Evangelical pastors were laying hands on Donald Trump in the White House and how one prominent evangelical leader immediately tweeted out the image with the caption:

“President Trump is bringing God back to America.” {In God We Obfuscate}

This “Bastards 2013” also wrote:

You talk about love and tolerance and yet your actions speak of hate and seclusion. You talk about America needing to find it’s moral center and returning to respecting one another and finding joys in the diversity of America. Then you back a man who is none of those. Donald Trump is your reflecting God. He is the face of your fake bullshit religion and from this day forth you will be forever known as the frauds and charlatans you are. Your speeches about god and love will be laughed at and ignored. Your attempts to say that this is Christianity will be endlessly mocked by those of us who know better. More importantly, when your god falls, and his presidency is nothing but a pile of ashes, you will have nowhere to run. Your sins will be laid bare and the scarlet letter of hypocrisy will be forever tattoed onto your forehead. While you preach the word of a megalomaniac, he is busy mocking Puerto Ricans as they struggle to survive after back to back hurricanes. As you attempt to speak about love and kindness (which you know nothing about) your god calls black men who are peacefully protesting inequality “Sons of bitches” and “traitors.” Meanwhile he speaks in front of a group of neo nazis and homophobes and says “It’s so nice to be around friends. So many friends.” You are the lowest form of human. ISIS is evil and should be eradicated, but at least they own who they are. They make no false speeches about love and acceptance when they don’t believe in it. They don’t shake the hands of the people while silently prepping to stab them in the back. You are nothing but low level talentless snake oil salesmen. You prey upon those who have been stricken desperate by your shitty unethical policies. You sell them a cure and make them believe that you and only you can help them. Then you sit back in your six homes, watching the peasants stumble around trying to find some sort of relief. {The Reflecting God}

Traditions of man

Throughout the ages, mankind had several gods and had celebrations for them. The Roman Catholic Church willing to capture as many heathen as they could, integrated many heathen festivals in their system. Christmas and Easter are the two most important ones still celebrated by the majority of Christians.

Lots of human traditions entered the life of those who call themselves Christian, though not many of them seem to wonder if they would be all right in the Eyes of God. That way Christendom became totally different from first-century Christianity.

A Religion of a relationship

Bringing a “Thought from a Pilgrim of Truth”, Perry Tripp, a father, husband, and a pastor writes

There is another thing that tends to happen when someone views Christianity as a relationship rather than a religion. The terms of the relationship begin to get a bit blurry. God and King, Master and Lord, get discarded for the much easier to handle Friend. When God becomes solely our friend, we lose the fear of the LORD, and our relationship with Him becomes unbiblical. Again, this is where religious devotion comes in. We are His servants, His children even. We must remember that God has been and will always be great, higher and holier than we are. {The R&R of Christianity}

Christianity should be a religion of a relationship with Jesus Christ and with Christ his God, Jehovah the God above all kings and gods, but also about the relationship with others and other things (human beings, nature – plants and animals).

Fear God

Many who have made Jesus as their god have lost the fear of God or fear for God. Our religion should be an expression of that fear for God. In the end it will be Him that preserves the faithful, and plentifully shall reward him that deals proudly with the Truth, having the courage to speak out and show the world That Only One True God, the God of the kings David, Solomon and Christ. Strangely enough Trinitarians are giving the word Christian an othe meaning than then “ian” to the “Christ” would suggest. They do not see the fundamentals connected to being a Christian, nor the need to know about the God of Christ, Who is the God of the Bible. Those Trinitarians minimalise the act of Christ and do not value Jesus his act of submission to God and his complete sacrifice for humanity. Strangely enough many who call themselves Christian but worship a three-headed god dare to say, like the pharmacy student Teni:

God wanted His people to stand out from the people around them.
…
The bible makes us understand that God Almighty the creator of the whole universe is the One and Only true God. That means, every other god, is actually non-existent and made up by people’s imagination and craftiness. {4 Mmisconceptions that need to be cleared about being a christian}

though they do not believe in that Only One True God.

Bringing honour to the Only Right God

Bringing honour to such false gods is at the same time dishonouring God and misusing God’s Name and God’s Title. those who call themselves Christian should witness to the goodness of God in a world that has ceased to acknowledge His existence, let alone His sovereignty over the Cosmos. It was God’s son, Jesus who gave his followers an assignment to tell those around them about the Divine Creator and His promises, the good news of the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God.

Those calling themselves Christian, should as followers of Jesus Christ, not only keep to his teachings, but follow the example of Christ, being servants of God, Jesus and others, and this even to their own peril. We should have a friendship realtionship with Christ as our brotherbut we are not to consider ourselves as equals with God, in the same way Jesus never considered himself equal with God. We owe only Jesus his God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, all of our devotion and allegiance.

Preceding

Not About The Name Of The Godhead Of Jesus

Rhetoric and Biblical Truth

Confrontation by people telling lies to force others to avoid the targetted groups

Religions and Mainliners

Additional reading

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Further related

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by Guestspeaker | 2020/12/09 · 8:12 pm

Rhetoric and Biblical Truth

Nathan Carter Johnson a 9th generation Tennessean, descendent of first landowners who settled in Middle Tennessee in the early 19th century, who is by trade a Professor of Moral Philosophy at New College Franklin in Franklin, holds a B.A. in English Literature and master’s degrees in Biblical Studies, Theological Studies, and Liberal Arts; currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Humanities, and teaches rhetoric to 11th graders, says it has become apparent that some of his students believe that we should not spend so much time studying rhetorical devices and tropes.

Either it’s a waste of time or, worse, it’s a form of manipulation and deceit. {Rhetoric as a Trinitarian Discipline}

For him it is

somewhat more surprising that so many of them feel that the time and attention spent learning about ethos, pathos, and rhetorical tropes is at its core a way of teaching them how to manipulate their audience. “Why can’t we simply speak the truth?” they ask. {Rhetoric as a Trinitarian Discipline}

Speaking the truth has become for many very difficult or not something to strive for. The majority of people prefer to please others and to keep to human ideas and teachings instead of choosing for following Biblical teachings. Lots of people also do not feel well when they would be seen as outsiders, and therefore they prefer to walk with the main stream.

Nathan Carter Johnson recognises that the Bible is a masterful piece of rhetoric, and says:

why rhetoric is an essential part of the school curriculum. We are a rhetoric-level Classical school, after all. And this is well received at the beginning of the year because, I suspect, it is all simply theory. But as my students have spent many hours practicing rhetoric and evaluating the rhetorical features of history’s greatest speeches, theory has collided with practice, and for some, their consciences are screaming at them. {Rhetoric as a Trinitarian Discipline}

The writer of the above mentioned article further writes:

Rhetoric is at its essence, to quote Quintilian, “the art of speaking well,” particularly in the context of persuasion. As Aristotle said, rhetoric is “the faculty of discovering in any particular case all the available means of persuasion.” But for many students, all this focus on “art” and “means of persuasion” is simply a deceptive way to cover up the truth. While this notion is misguided, I’m thankful they are voicing it, because it enables all of us to think more deeply about how to answer their question: Why can we not simply speak the truth? The answers to this reveal many things about the nature of truth, language, and our God. {Rhetoric as a Trinitarian Discipline}

In this day and ages of lots of fake news and false messages people often forget that certain groups of people have advantages not to tell the truth. As such for centuries the Roman Catholic Church told many lies making it easier for them to frighten people and to get more followers from them and more money.

Lots of institutions used their power for persuading common people to follow them and to become a member of their church.

Mr. Johnson agrees that there is no such thing as “neutral speech.”

To speak is to persuade. Even the simple statement, “I like lilies,” is an attempt to persuade one’s audience to believe this fact and to believe it for a specific reason. We cannot speak without selecting which information we want to say and which information we want to refrain from saying. We cannot speak without selecting how we want to speak: whether that is our tone of voice, our vocal modulation and inflection, the use of figures of speech, or how we string our words and sentences together. So the question is not whether we should use our speech to persuade, but whether we are using persuasion with honesty, integrity, and artistry: or, if you will, with Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. {Rhetoric as a Trinitarian Discipline}

We all should be fully aware that for many, to persuade by means of artistry seems like an attempt to cover up (or supplement) the truth because they don’t believe the truth is persuasive enough on its own. That idea made many people willing to give their own ideas more strength by calling themselves theologians, and even telling the world that ordinary people can not understand the Bible because it would be too complicated for them. People started believing their words and did not dare to question if God would ever make His Word so complicated that only studied people could understand it.

The reason why for many the Bible looks so difficult to understand and even seems to contradict itself at certain places is, because the false human doctrines made it so complicated eand by the first doctrine had to come a second, and then a third and once more some other doctrines people just had to accept, so-called because they would not be able to understand it.

It are those human doctrines which made the Bible to complicated for many people; In case people would just take the words for what they say it would be So Easy!

When they would read “son fo God” and think “son of God” when it is written in the Scriptures already the main problem will be solved. But for many that seems too easy.

The danger of a good rhetorician is like a musician or any other theatrical performer who by his artistry can bring people into a different world, which is not always the world of truth, like Mr. Johnson wants us to believe. About a good rhetorician he says:

His artful speech ends up communicating truth in the way intended by God, because truth is meant to be embraced. His artful speech, by being more persuasive, leads the audience to embrace a truth they wouldn’t have if they were merely listening to someone speak accurate words. {Rhetoric as a Trinitarian Discipline}

He is forgetting the Bible can speak for itself and has the Words from God written in it. The Bible is the infallible Word of God Which always tells the Truth. And people should know that God is no liar. Often people also forget that God knows everything, whilst the prophets, Jesus and his disciples did not know everything; Jesus even did not know when he would return or when the End Times would be. In case he would be God, like so many want us to believe, than God would be lying and deceiving as well, because God also told us that no man can see God, whilst many have seen Jesus.

Those who claim to be Christian should be believing those Words of God Who says He is Only One (and not two or three) and take the warnings from God at heart:

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram and said unto him, “I am the Almighty God. Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.” (Ge 17:1 KJ21)

“”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (De 6:4 KJ21)

“”‘See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god besides Me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand.” (De 32:39 KJ21)

“one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Eph 4:6 KJ21)

“Concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but One.” (1Co 8:4 KJ21)

“God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent. Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” (Nu 23:19 KJ21)

“Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David.” (Ps 89:35 KJ21)

“in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began,” (Tit 1:2 KJ21)

“that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we, who have fled for refuge, might have strong consolation to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” (Heb 6:18 KJ21)

“And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent.”” (1Sa 15:29 KJ21)

“And He said, “Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live.”” (Ex 33:20 KJ21)

“1 “Thou shalt not raise a false report. Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 2 Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, following many, to divert judgment. ….. 7 Keep thee far from a false matter, and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked. 8 And thou shalt take no bribe, for the bribe blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous. … And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect; and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. ….. 20 “Behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21 Have regard for him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for My name is in him. 22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. 23 For Mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites and the Hittites, and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. 24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them and quite break down their images. 25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and He shall bless thy bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. 26 None shall cast their young nor be barren in thy land; the number of thy days I will fulfill. … 32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against Me; for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”” (Ex 23:1-33 KJ21)

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (Joh 1:18 KJ21)

“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1Ti 1:17 KJ21)

“who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.” (1Ti 6:16 KJ21)

Though no man can see God, does not mean He would not exist or would not have the Power to reach people so that they can come to see the Truth.

People should know that the decisions of Jehovah God are true and that God can be found by man if they are willing to hear His Word and to place it above the words of man.

“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” (Ps 19:9 KJ21)

“It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in,” (Isa 40:22 KJ21)

“For from the creation of the world the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” (Ro 1:20 KJ21)

“There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” (1Co 15:40 KJ21)

“He that hath received His testimony hath set his seal to this: that God is true.” (Joh 3:33 KJ21)

“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.”” (Ro 3:4 KJ21)

“He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.” (1Jo 5:10 KJ21)

It is that believe in the son of God which is so important but so many Trinitarians overlook. People namely have to believe that Jesus is the sent one from God and that he is God’s only begotten beloved son.

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” (Ga 4:4 KJ21)

“And lo, a voice came from Heaven, saying, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.”” (Mt 3:17 KJ21)

“Jesus said unto them, “If God were your Father, ye would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me.” (Joh 8:42 KJ21)

Those words seem so simple and clear, though the majority of people who call themselves Christian do not want to accept those words and even go so far to say that people who believe those words are no Christians. Though some would agree to say

it is not enough to to see yourself as a cultural Christian; you should be a Christian by heart as well. {Being A Cultural Christian Is Not Enough}

Though that concept of being a Christian by heart might be different by those Trinitarians because for them, it is more important to keep to the human dogma’s instead of to the Biblical dogma. Strangely enough most of those Trinitarians would agree with the theorem

In the first place, being a Christian presupposes that you believe in God. And in fact, a Christian does not only believe in God, he or she also believes in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. {Being A Cultural Christian Is Not Enough}

Though at the same time they say:

“Jesus is God”

and

“Jesus is god the son”

something totally different than

“the son of God.”

Some Trinitarians say the Father and son are not equal personally, they say they are just equal in office, when they also say they are two persons but the same God. They forget how Jesus tells his disciples to Whom he is going and by Whom he can do things.

“17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” 18 Therefor the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. 19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, “Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For the Father loveth the Son and showeth Him all things that He Himself doeth; and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. 22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, 23 that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father who hath sent Him. 24 Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth My Word and believeth in Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. 25 “Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. 26 For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 28 Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice 29 and shall come forth—they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 30 “I can of Mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father who hath sent Me.
31 If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. 32 There is Another that beareth witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesseth of Me is true. 33 “Ye sent unto John, and he bore witness unto the truth. 34 But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say, that ye might be saved. 35 He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. 36 But I have greater witness than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me.” (Joh 5:17-36 KJ21)

“Jesus said unto them, “If God were your Father, ye would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me.” (Joh 8:42 KJ21)

“27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, ‘I go away and come again unto you.’ If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said, ‘I go unto the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 “Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.” (Joh 14:27-31 KJ21)

“Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”” (Joh 20:17 KJ21)

“But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.” (1Co 11:3 KJ21)

“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and I will write upon him My new name.” (Re 3:12 KJ21)

Mr.Johnson with many other Trinitarians want people to believe that artful speech is in fact truer than bland speech and truer that the black on white letters of Scriptures. We should check their speech with what those words tell us black on white and if it is consistent not with its message, but with the Bible message.

Truth’s telos is to be believed — and to bear fruit in virtue and worship, people should follow the Word of God and not that of man. We may not forget that The Bible can speak for itself and that it embodies within itself power and beauty, because Truth finds its source within the Pure Word of the Only One True God and not in the Trinity. In this way, the manner in which we speak must reflect the nature of Truth itself. Artful speech is truer because it embodies more than simple truth: It is Trinitarian.

People should come to see that there might be many roads, but no all leading to God. For sure Jesus is the way to God and not to himself. Jesus, his disciples and their followers are paving the road leading to God.

Be sure that when you are willing to look for the Truth, you shall not be alone. Many who love Christ are willing to strive for

Maintaining unity of Spirit in the bond of peace becoming one with God

Mr.Johnson knows that truth that does not reflect the beauty and goodness of God is important. Nut than it is important to know “Which God” one wants to honour. One should not go for the “truth of man” that does present itself as worthy of admiration, but should go for God’s Truth.

A truth that does not have moral weight, is hardly a truth worth telling.

Please let us always remember to have no gods besides the Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, and to keep to the Biblical Truth.

Preceding

Not About The Name Of The Godhead Of Jesus

To find ways of Godly understanding

Fully God Or Only A Part Of God?

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Additional reading

Further related

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle, Religious affairs, Welfare matters

Tagged as All-knowing, Being Christian, Biblical teachings, Christian, Christianity, Church teachings, False teachings, Human dogma's, Human teachings, Institutions, Main stream, Main stream religion, Nathan Carter Johnson, Only begotten beloved son of God, Only True God, Outsider, Persuasion, Rhetoric, Sent one from God, Theologians, Warning from God, Words of God

by Guestspeaker | 2020/07/22 · 5:25 pm

Looking at an Utopism which has not ended

Marcus Ampe wrote a few days ago on WordPress “Utopism has not ended” giving more clarification on his way of thinking and about his “Utopian Dreams“. In a series of articles on his WordPress blog he continues to look at reasons why we should not give up hope for a better world and how some Christians and certain people are too much afraid for matters of social protection.

The Thousand-Year View from N.S. Palmer wants to apply time-tested ideas to the problems of our modern era and also took a look at Mr. Ampe‘s writing. N.S. Palmer preaches that we shouldn’t worry about things we can’t control, but it’s easier to say than to do. On that point we seem to differ. We cannot escape being in this system and having to live in this world at a certain time. But how we live and what we are willing to accept to happen plays an important role in our life. When people, living in this world, believe it could be very well possible to make it a better place for many, to some that might be an unreachable goal, to others it should be something to work at.

Trying to get a perfect society is something which we all should be doing. Though we agree only partly with Mr. Palmer who says

No society ever has been or ever will be perfect. {Utopia’s Biggest Problem}

him forgetting that one day Jesus Christ shall return and install the Kingdom of God here on earth. The Nazarene rabbi his government will be the most perfect governing body and shall give all its inhabitants the most perfect system to live in.

Mr Palmer further finds that

utopians waste their time and cause great harm by rejecting possible goals and pursuing an impossible goal. {Utopia’s Biggest Problem}

It is true that the goal set by utopians might be very unreachable, hence their name “utopists”, or followers of utopian dreams, thinking of utopia (1500-1600) being the imaginary perfect country in the book Utopia (1516) by the English humanist and statesman, chancellor of England (1529–32) Sir Thomas More, from Greek ou “not, no” + topos “place”.

Because their goal can never be achieved, nothing will ever be enough. They think we should keep doing the same things, just do them harder. Spend more money. Take away more freedom. Police more speech. {Utopia’s Biggest Problem}

Such an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens may be presented in several authors their stories. A utopia focuses on equality in such categories as economics, government and justice (a non-exhaustive list), and does not focus on “spending more money” like Mr. Palmer seems to give the impression. Neither do utopians want to take away the freedom of people. Just the opposite they want to secure that there is freedom on all sorts of levels: freedom of life, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, a.o. but most importantly also freedom of choice under the condition not to limit others. That utopians want to have more control on those freedoms and perhaps would want to see more control of having all people receiving the same liberties and same equalities, may demand a controlling apparatus or police, but does not have to mean we have to go to become a police-state or a state of repression. That is the wrong vision a lot of people who are against socialism, utopianism and communism want to send into the world.

There are many debates about what constitutes a utopia. Many who are against any social feeling, what they call part of the “left” consider utopians and their world or societies they want to build, “utopias” benign or dangerous. Concerning utopia fitting or not, or being essential to a Christian world lots of contradictory ideas go round. Many ask

Is the idea of utopianism essential to Christianity or heretical? What is the relationship between utopia and ideology?

One of the leading scholars in the field of utopian studies, Lyman Tower Sargent argues that utopia’s nature is inherently contradictory because societies are not homogeneous and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. Sargent notes that some thinkers see a trajectory from utopia to totalitarianism, with violence an inevitable part of the mix, and we have the impression Mr. Palmer might do so also.

According to Sargent:

There are socialist, capitalist, monarchical, democratic, anarchist, ecological, feminist, patriarchal, egalitarian, hierarchical, racist, left-wing, right-wing, reformist, free love, nuclear family, extended family, gay, lesbian and many more utopias [ Naturism, Nude Christians, …] Utopianism, some argue, is essential for the improvement of the human condition. But if used wrongly, it becomes dangerous. Utopia has an inherent contradictory nature here.

And that describes very well the difficulty of that utopian world for which Mr. Ampe puts his hand in the fire. He as several other Christians believes in the purity man can come to reach, in which innocence is in the heart of that person, enabling people to walk freely in nature naked, without others having bad ideas. In such a free world naturism would for example never be a problem, because all people would abstain from wrong thinking and wrong acts. In an utopian world there is no place for sexual offensive acts to the public sense of decency. There being no place for obscenity by people keeping themselves to pure thought the same as the first people in the Garden of Eden had. It was only after they had done wrong and came to know good and evil that they became afraid of the other and wanted to protect themselves by covering their body. Such covering in an ideal world would not be necessary, the same as it was not a matter to cover oneself in the 1970ies and hippies could share their places freely with others without having to fear something to go wrong. Nakedness was no problem at that time, whilst now we see again a lot of shyness and fear of nudity among many young people as well as some elderly people.

We do agree many of the boom children tried to create a perfect society in the 1960–70ies but failed terribly. Though we are not ashamed that we tried to stimulate others to step on the wagon with us (dreamers). Many of our generation might have betrayed their ideas, but Mr. Ampe like several others, as a follower of the Nazarene Jeshua (Jesus Christ) believes the teachings of that rebbe are still worth going for.

Utopians just ask people to take the responsibility for others and to respect everybody and everybody around them. They would never stimulate capitalism, like N.S. Palmer gives the impression.

At the moment we can grow unto more tolerance by learning to agree to disagree, as well by not being afraid to dare to engage in thoughtful political discussions. Though at the moment we still face the difficulty that not everyone involved is really interested in finding out the truth. An other problem these days is also that lots of people do not realise that disagreement does not imply evil. On that fact Mr. Palmer seems to agree and writes:

Calm, rational debate helps them see the underlying assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses of each person’s viewpoint. That helps everyone understand the issues better. It also helps them understand each other better. Screaming, hysteria, and emotional theatrics do not. {Dialogue Is Not Harmful}

We believe the Bible offers a way to live together peaceful and gives us a nice picture in the Book of Isaiah, what that world can and shall be. We might be utopians or dreamers for many, but Mr. Ampe with his brethren and sisters in Christ do believe those prophesies are going to become true, and as such shall their utopian dream once become a reality, though it still may take some time.

Mr. Ampe also believes we can be united and should try to convince those who hate certain people, to have them to accept them as co-living citizens with the same rights as them. It is for mutual benefit and the common good that people must be rational enough to set aside their differences and come closer to each other with full respect for each other and for other cultures.

Big problem today to come to such an utopian world is the egocentric and egoistic attitude of the present population.

We believe the Bible gives enough directions to come to a better world already now in our lifetime, even before the return of Christ. We do not have to wait until the wars to expect or the Big Battle or Armageddon, before we shall come to think about that better world. Already today, in our lifetime, we can show others fundamental truths of life.

Some might think utopians want all to become “puppets” handled by someone in charge of everything. But that is a wrong thought about the world envisioned by us. We are against any dictatorial system. It is a world whereby people freely agree to follow certain ethics and moral laws. We also do not say everybody has to do the same thing in the same manner. In our ‘utopian world’, there is enough freedom to act freely. Already now we can try to come to agreements to live a certain way, and this without any force or violence.

Find also to read:

+++

Further related

Utopia!
Utopia basically means paradise. And, in these times of social, political and ecological upheaval, to dream of a utopian world in which these problems cease to exist is completely natural.
Utopia – Thomas More ****
Broaden the Narratives: Mistaken Orders<
Humanities Retribution
Anarchy, State and Utopia
Leon Trotzky
Globalism: a Letter
Money-Free World
Alternative Earth
The Citizen’s Convention on Climate: utopia or step towards change?
Utopia….State of bliss!
Technology, Utopia, and Horizon Zero Dawn
Are We There, Yet?
History Bends Toward Chaos
“How will i get a cappuccino in your political utopia?”
Why Common Sense Is So Uncommon
Nothing Learned
We Can Have Unity Without Unanimity
How to Get a Healthy Society
Rebecca Solnit on Hope
The Blank Slate of Outer Space
The Climate Crisis and the Need for Utopian Thinking
And The Greatest Of These…Is Love
An Ode Of Utopia

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Tagged as 1960s, 1970s, Baby boomers, Better world, Boom children, Christianity, Direction, Direction in life, Directions, Freedom, Freedom of choice, Freedom of expression, Hope, Hope for the future, Human society, Lyman Tower Sargent, Making a better world, Marcus Ampe, N.S. Palmer, Nakedness, Naturism, Nudism, Obscenity, Society, Thomas More, Utopian dreams, Utopianism, Utopism

by Guestspeaker | 2019/10/30 · 12:29 pm

Instruments for the fulfilment of the prophecy

We should consider Christians and Moslems as
instruments for the fulfilment of the prophecy
that the knowledge of God will one day spread throughout the earth.
Whereas the nations before them worshipped idols, denied God’s existence,
and thus did not recognize God’s power or retribution,
the rise of Christianity and Islam served to spread among the nations,
to the furthest ends of the earth,
the knowledge that there is One God who rules the world,
who rewards and punishes and reveals Himself to man.

~ Jacob Emden, also known as Ya’avetz

Jacob Emden, likely around 1760

The son of the Chacham Tzvi, and a descendant of Elijah Ba’al Shem of Chelm, Jacob Emden (born Ashkenazi), was a traditionalist who responded to the ideals of tolerance being circulated during the 18th-century Enlightenment. He stretched the traditional inclusivist position into universal directions and, like Maimonides, believed that Christianity and Islam have important roles to play in God’s plan for mankind,

Nederlandse tekst / Dutch version: Instrumenten voor de vervulling van de profetie

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Filed under Quotations or Citations, Religious affairs, World affairs

Tagged as Christian, Christianity, Christians, Fulfilment of prophecy, God's retribution, God’s existence, Idol worship, Instruments for the fulfilment of the prophecy, Islam, Jacob Emden (Ya'avetz), Knowledge of God, Muslim, Muslims, One God, Power of God, Ruler God

by Marcus Ampe | 2019/07/23 · 12:42 pm

Francis Fukuyama and ‘The End of History?’

American political scientist, political economist, and author Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama in 2015

The American writer and political theorist Francis Fukuyama wrote

“Human beings never existed in a pre-social state. The idea that human beings at one time existed as isolated individuals is not correct.”

In his seminal 1989 essay ‘The End of History?’ he also wrote

‘What we may be witnessing is the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.’

Fukuyama trying to convey silent messages through stories about the evolution of democratic societies he continued

‘With the fall of the Soviet Union the struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk one’s life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide ideological struggle that called forth daring, courage, imagination, and idealism will be replaced by economic calculation, the endless solving of technical problems, environmental concerns, and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands.’

The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay “The End of History?”, published in the international affairs journal The National Interest.

Fukuyama did not suggest that the end of history meant the end of wars or conflicts, but rather that capitalism and Western-style liberal democracy were the culmination of human political development and would not, and could not, be transcended. He beliefs that the triumph of liberal democracy at the end of the Cold War marked the last ideological stage in the progression of human history. The initial political challenge having to escape beyond tribalism and the “tyranny of cousins”.

For Fukuyama, tribal organisation responds to structural imperatives in social evolution but also blocks the path to further development. The early account of the origins of state-like forms relies heavily on Lawrence Keeley’s military-focused argument in War Before Civilisation (1996) and does not consider the evidence assembled by Keith Otterbein in How War Began (2004): that warfare greatly declined in importance following the hunting to extinction of the larger mammals. Keeley himself grants that early settlement cultures, such as the Natufian,

“furnish no indication of warfare at all”. {Robin Blackburn– The Origins of Political Order: From Pre-Human Times to the French Revolution, By Francis Fukuyama}

We can see that in the West the majority prefers a capitalist system and in several industrialised countries people are a lot afraid of what smells social or communist. Fukuyama thinks that all states are going to adopt a form of capitalist liberal democracy. It was an argument contested from almost the moment he finished writing his essay.
The rise of Islamism, the unleashing of ethnic conflicts, the challenge posed by China – a myriad developments, his critics suggested, questioned the presumption of an end of history.

Donald Trump’s Presidential victory was one of the signs how politicians would easily be able to lure people in false ideas, by their words. The last few years we have seen a seemingly unstoppable rise of populist forces throughout Europe.

Many will probably see how in the quarter of a century since Fukuyama wrote his essay, politics, particularly in the West, has indeed shifted away from ‘ideological struggle’ towards

‘the endless solving of technical problems’.

The broad ideological divides that characterized politics for much of the past two hundred years have been eroded. Politics has become less about competing visions of the kinds of society people want than a debate about how best to manage the existing political system, a question more of technocratic management rather than of social transformation.

What might more come to an end is the believe of people in political systems and in politicians. Lots of people are convinced that politicians are not listening to them and are mostly just working for themselves and trying to get the best paid job.
The majority of politicians have lost connection with the ordinary people who want to feel as if they are justly recognised and that their voice can be heard. The last few years they feel more they are mocked at, nobody taking their voice seriously. Politicians should come to know that this desire to experience both personal and collective recognition is inescapable to the modern human condition.

Liberal democratic states that Fukuyama so vigorously defended in “The End of History” have not responded well to the challenges of pluralism.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, few believed in an alternative to capitalism, not seeing that the Soviet Union was not really the best representative of communism, because it had more dictators than real communist leaders. Communist parties crumbled, while social democratic parties remade themselves, cutting ties to their traditional working class constituencies while reorienting themselves as technocratic parties. Trade unions weakened and social justice campaigns eroded.

It seemed that not only in Europe social movements and political organizations eroded, and the far-right movements gained space. Local people wanted to become recognised and wanted to look upon social change through the lens of their own cultures, identities, goals and ideals.

Many sections of the working class have found themselves politically voiceless at the very time their lives have become more precarious, as jobs have declined, public services savaged, austerity imposed, and inequality risen. Many also came to see all those immigrants as a danger for their own position, their jobs and income as well as being afraid of loosing their culture.

Having their world coming to an end.

Lots of people in charge of the working of society did not see the discontent many their votes expressed.

Prominent alt-rightists were instrumental in organising the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. Here, rally participants carry Confederate battle flags, Gadsden flags and a Nazi flag.

In Europe and America, people have become disaffected with the old order and felt more attraction for those who promised heaven on earth and for them “a great nation” again. Many of the opposition movements that give voice to that disaffection of the labourers, are shaped not by progressive ideals but by sectarian politics, and rooted in religious or ethnic identity. The Islamist AKP in Turkey or the Hindu nationalist BJP in India are the equivalents of the Front National in France or the alt right, far-right, white supremacist, white nationalist, white separatist, anti-immigration and antisemitic movement in America and Europe.

Those growing right-wing and far- or extreme-right-wing groups should make us aware of the severity of the present political situation. We are witnessing a globally disinformation movement which is creating more hatred and racism as well setting up people against others for wrong reasons.

The current tumult is the result of struggles for recognition that remain unshaped by progressive movements, of ideological struggles in a post-ideological world.

Demand for recognition of one’s identity is a master concept that unifies much of what is going on in world politics today. In his new book: Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment Francis Fukuyama looks at the new layers of meaning of the voters or citizen’s identity.

Fukuyama believes that the focus on self separates people from their communities. The demand for identity cannot be transcended and therefore people must begin to shape identity in a way that supports rather than undermines democracy.
When coming to know the self one can not ignore the connection with religious feelings. One aspect of wisdom is recognizing your need for The One Being outside man.

Christianity succeeds in diminishing family ties when the Church takes a strong stand against practices which enhanced the power of lineages such as cousin marriage, divorce, adoption and marriage to the widows of dead relatives. The looser family pattern favoured by the practices of Latin Christianity have the effect of channelling assets to the Church itself (eg through widows’ bequests). Fukuyama further urges that “contrary to Marx, capitalism was the consequence rather than the cause of a change in social relationships”. Yet he soon acknowledges that

“the most convincing argument for the shift has been given by the social anthropologist Jack Goody“,

an authority whose work could be seen as a distinctive fruit of Cambridge Marxism. {Robin Blackburn– The Origins of Political Order: From Pre-Human Times to the French Revolution, By Francis Fukuyama}

Fukuyama has the idea that the individualistic sense of identity comes to the fore during periods of modernisation in which people fled from rural areas into the cities and were confronted with a mass of different dialects or languages, religions and cultures and were aware of a sense of the difference between where they were and where they are now. Today in some way many people seem to be lost or are so much afraid of such confrontation they do hope their politicians can solve that problem of difference between the inhabitants of their villages, cities and countries.

Fukuyama notes the ways in which questions of identity politics have come to be regarded as synonymous with the right. Donald Trump supporters are animated around the removal of Confederate statues and the president’s lack of defence to political correctness is a significant mobilising force on the right.

Intimidation and efforts to control people have become the present day norm for many politicians, who gain a lot of popularity because many fall for their lies. That virus threatening democracy has not only infected the United States but also the European Union. As such we may see that identity politics has become the political form of cultural fragmentation of these days, and is corrosive of some features of an effective democracy – social cohesion, talking with strangers and working across the aisle.

According to me the politicians do have to give an identity to the people again and have to show them that we all have more in common with each other than what divides us.

It is a “we” who are the same, and not a “we” who are strangers dwelling together despite our differences. {Jeff Rich – Identity Crisis – some theses on identity politics}

History shall continue and show how man tries to find different political solutions and ways to govern a country. Man shall have to find a way to make it that by the globalisation more and more people would be going to see the richness of a multicultural society, instead of fearing it.

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Tagged as Alt-right, America, Cambridge Marxism, Capitalism, Capitalist liberal democracy, Christianity, Church, Cold War, Collective recognition, Communism, Communist leader(s), Communist parties, Confederate statues, Conflict, Democracy, Disinformation movement, Donald Trump, Donald Trump supporter(s), Europe, European Union, Far-right parties, France, Francis Fukuyama, Globalisation, How War Began (Keith Otterbein), Human government, Human history, Identity, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (Francis Fukuyama), Ideological struggle, Immigrants, Indian People's Party = Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Intimidation, Islamism, Jack Goody, Jeff Rich, Justice and Development Party = Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), Lawrence Keeley, Liberal democracy, Mankind, Mankind’s ideological evolution, Modernisation, Multicultural society, National Front (Front National), Old order, Personal recognition, Pluralism, Political development, Political systems, Populism, Populist politicians, Populist vote, Recognition, Right-wing political parties, Robin Blackburn, Social democratic parties, Social justice, Social transformation, Soviet Union, Technocratic parties, The End of History? (Francis Fukuyama), the Self, Trade unions, Universalization, War, War Before Civilisation (Lawrence Keeley), Working class

by Guestspeaker | 2019/04/17 · 11:41 am

Torah Portion – Pesach B

Christianity really came out the Jewish sect The Way, those people being Jeshuaists or followers of Jeshua gathered in the name of Jeshua to honour the Only One True God and to remember how their master teacher Jeshua gave himself as a ransom for the sins of many.

Messiah Jeshua was a devout Jewish man of flesh and blood who managed to have many followers. Though soon false teachers came unto the platform, entering Roman Greek philosophies, going as far as agreeing with the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to make Jeshua into Jesus (Hail Zeus) and making a god of him. From then onwards we saw Christendom with the trinitarians but always have been there real followers of Jeshua, not going for that Trinity but keeping worship solely to the Only One True God of Israel, like every Jew should also worship Only One True God above all.

You consider the “resurrection of Messiah” as “an inherently Jewish event” but it was the proof for the whole world that from then onwards a man of flesh and blood could be taken out of the dead. (Those who say Jesus is God, naturally still have no proof that man can come out of death, and often forget that God even can not die, so would have faked His death, fooling also mankind considering His all knowing, because telling people he does not know when he would return.

With his own will putting aside Jeshua did fulfil the Will of God and gave himself to his heavenly Father as an offering, shedding his blood as a lamb, this time not only for liberating or bringing a passover of houses of Jehudi, but for all people, making it possible for Jews and goyim to have a restored relationship with the Most High God.

For sure the Elohim HaShem Jehovah demanded to celebrate the Passover of the with blood sprinkled houses in Egypt, and Jesus also did remember that on the Seder night, demanding also to remember from then onwards how he (Jesus) as presented himself as a Lamb of God and a Lamb for God, to pay for the sins of all people and to inaugurate the New Covenant. Therefore we all come together on 14 Nisan to have a Memorial Meal in remembrance of those two special acts of liberation.

*

To remember

over the years the Lord has taught the blog writer how to celebrate Jeshua’s resurrection in an authentic Messianic Jewish way.

In Messianic Judaism, the resurrection of Yeshua = one of our most treasured truths.

significance of the resurrection > celebration of miraculous event = merited + necessary.

> faith in Yeshua + belief in His resurrection sets us apart from the rest of the Jewish community.

The death of Yeshua = extremely sensitive subject to most Jewish people.

resurrection of Messiah > Messianic Judaism shares in common with Christianity.

customary meal very much like a Havdalah meal in our day > inaugurates each week with the beautiful symbols of a cup of wine, fragrant spices, and the luminescent glow of a multi-wicked candle.

Parasha With Passion - Weekly Torah Portions

Parasha With Passion – Weekly Torah Reading Cycle – Pesach B

This week, in Parashat Pesach Matzot-B, God instructs Israel to observe Passover
through the generations.

Deuteronomy 16:1:

“Observe the month of Aviv and keep the
Passover to Adonai your God, for in the month
of Aviv^[^b^]Adonai your God brought you out
from Egypt by night.

Celebrating
Yeshua’s Resurrection In An Authentic Messianic Jewish Way

As a Messianic Believer, one of my biggest struggles was learning how to
celebrate Yeshua’s resurrection in a Messianic Jewish context. However, over the years the Lord has taught
me how to celebrate Yeshua’s resurrection in an authentic Messianic Jewish way.

Yeshua is ALIVE proclaimed his disciples as they gazed in an empty tomb (Mark
16:1-8). The
resurrection of Yeshua is an event that Jewish believers experienced before
Christianity even existed. In Messianic
Judaism, the resurrection of Yeshua is…

View original post 441 more words

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Tagged as 14 Nisan, Blood of Christ, Blood of the Lamb, Christendom, Christianity, False teachers, Followers of Christ, Jeshuaist(s), Lamb of God, Man of flesh and blood, New Covenant, Pasach (Passover), Passover, Ransom offer, Restored relationship with God, Resurrection of Jesus

by Immanuel Verbondskind | 2018/12/18 · 7:38 pm

No religion mentioned in the Torah for non-Jews

It is not because there is no religion mentioned in the Torah for goyim or non-Jews that they should not have a religion or should not have to come to the Elohim. It is also not so that when people call themselves Christian and would go regularly to mass or to a church service that they are serving God or being recognised as His children.

In Christendom we can find lots of people who have an other god than the one of Abraham, though the divine Creator is very clear Who He is and what He wants from His people. Also Abraham did very well know Who the Most High God was.

Looking at the many churches in Christendom we can see that several churches altered the Torah and that the main church is breaking one of the laws in the Torah itself. Several people who come to study the Bible become angry when they see how their churches fooled them. It is a pity that they than abandon the faith in God. Some of them are then trying to find their way in Judaism. A few do not lose their faith in Christ and find their way in Christianity, becoming a member of one of the several non-trinitarian groups or churches.

It is wrong to think that those in the main churches

only have what the church has given them, altered scriptures and mistranslations. {I Hope They Get It}

Every human being is able to hear the Word of God. Wherever he lives there is some way to hear God’s Word. Those living in the industrialised countries have no excuse at all. For them there are enough means to get in touch with the Word of God. They have the printed material, like Bible books, other books and brochures, but also electronic devices where they can find several applications presenting the Word of God.

Questioning what we really believe is the only way to ever know what we really believe and why. {I Hope They Get It}

and that is what each individual has to do: searching himself what is the truth of God.

It is totally wrong to think that there would not be churches telling the biblical Truth. Luckily we can find many churches all over the world which proclaim God’s Word. It is not because the main

church says a lot of things that don’t line up with His word. {I Hope They Get It}

that we should say

No, the New Testament is not His word. There is no place in it where it says that He is speaking. {I Hope They Get It}

In the Greek writings or Brit Chadashah we are told about the one who is sent by God and authorised to speak in His name. As such the Messianic writings are a continuation of the Hebrew writings, bringing hope for those who are not of the Judaic faith. Because also for the non-Jews the way to the restored relationship with God is opened. This thanks to the ransom offering of Jeshua, the sent one from God.

The writer William Bouker may have become very frustrated by his old church, which makes it a pity he now concluded that the work delivered by Jesus and his apostles would not be from God. Pity also that he thinks

All through the Torah and the Prophets, it tells us that G-d is speaking and to whom He is speaking. No Christian writing can make this claim. {I Hope They Get It}

He seems to forget that the Torah and Prophets are part of the Christian writings too.

There is no need for a middleman. That is one of the lies of the church. {I Hope They Get It}

writes Mr. Bouker who with ‘Convert Corner’ is

attempting to provide more than just proof that the Christian religion is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. {About Convert Corner}

He is a former Christian

who is currently going through an Orthodox conversion to Judaism. {About Convert Corner}

and spent years believing what he was told to believe by preachers and teachers instead of going to research the Bible for himself. Clinging to church doctrines no wonder he feels that he

had very little knowledge of the G-d of Israel. {About Convert Corner}

He seems to forget that the God of Israel wants a good relationship with all His creatures and by means of sending His only begotten beloved son made it possible that all can be saved from the curse of sin. But naturally each person has to decide himself or herself what way to go. The sent one from God, Jeshua, (Jesus Christ) shows the way to God. By him non-Jews also can come into the restored relationship with God. For goyim or gentiles there is also a way to have a religion which can be accepted by the God of Abraham.

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Tagged as Abraham, Being Christian, Biblical truth, Brit Chadashah (New Testament), Christendom, Christian, Christianity, Churches, Faith in Christ, Godly Truth, Greek writings, Hebrew writings, Judaism, Messianic writings, Most High, Non-Jews, Religion, Restored relationship with God, Sent one from God, the Way to God, Torah, Word of God

by Guestspeaker | 2018/08/11 · 12:57 pm

Christianity primarily a matter of imitation

Christianity is not primarily a matter of morality, ideology, or even theology – it is primarily a matter of imitation. It is the imitation of The Christ that must concern us, first and foremost.

Jesus is the Model of true Christian faith in practice. He came to show us exactly what God had originally designed mankind to be. He came to be the model of what the Christian faith must be – and to pass that passion and purpose on to every disciple committed to Him. Our task, as Jesus’ disciples, is to imitate all that The Christ has modeled for us.

~ Four – Understand Our Purpose – pg. 121

Jesus lays out a foundation, for all He is about to say, by focusing upon a significant pre-requisite. He speaks of the necessity of loving Him, and of obeying what He commands. When Jesus speaks of obedience, He is speaking of a lifestyle of devotion to that which garners His devotion. Jesus’ disciples obey Him by keeping what He keeps, and holding on to that which He holds… with a steadfast dedication. We have to come to imitate Christ if we want to bear the name Christian.

+++

Having to learn and benefit from other Christian denominations

We must all learn and benefit from other Christian denominations,
traditions, and styles of worship
and should not just admire or idolise one particular one in isolation.
If we don’t learn from other traditions, we come insular and narrow.

Charismatic churches dominate on university campuses,
leaving little room for non-charismatics and promoting a narrow, limited, distorted, disproportionate, and false image of Christianity and of what it actually means to be a Christian, especially what it means to be one at university.

~ Ben Somervell ‘Come, just as you are to worship’

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Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Quotations or Citations, Religious affairs

Tagged as Being Christian, Ben Somervell, Charismatic churches, Christian denominations, Christian styles of worship, Christian traditions, Christianity, Image of Christianity

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Preachers giving false ideas

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The Culture Wars began when white American evangelicals took the activist playbook from the very Civil Rights leaders they opposed, to advance a moral agenda they could support.

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Looking for the church

Coming face to face with God

Sinful people

Houses of worship for the Only One God Jehovah

One God and His beloved son opposite a god the son

A son of man as a way to God

Accepting Jesus as son of God

Followers of false teachings and false teachers

Not a schizophrenic God

The religion of Old Testament not passing away

Difficulties around gentile converts

Seeing and not seeing the man of flesh and blood

Jerusalem consultation

Constantine period

Donatists and Arians

Name change

Current Churches in a Torn Church World

Receiving God and being united with His son

Active in the world

Servants not doing bad things

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Necessary parts in the daily walk with God

Christians, Lutherans, Wesleyans, and other followers

Jesus leading his followers out of a system of oppression

First-century Christians

The Way to God

Following teachings based on Jesus his teachings

Not believing in a different God than the Jews

Path to walk

A God demanding exclusive devotion

The God greater than Jesus

Jesus not able to do anything without God

Jesus submissive to his God

The churches and gods of man

God in Christians

United in Christ serving the God of Christ

Jesus not knowing many who call themself Christian

Picking and choosing like a kid

Traditions of man

A Religion of a relationship

Fear God

Bringing honour to the Only Right God

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Celebrating
Yeshua’s Resurrection In An Authentic Messianic Jewish Way