Own Private Words to bring into a good relationship

In the previous posting “Words to bring into a good relationship” we have spoken about Words God spoke to man and which enable man to find the Real True God.

English: Sperindio Cagnola, Jesus Christ, John...

Sperindio Cagnola, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist kneeling and praying to God the Father (detail of the Last Judgement), 1514 -24, Paruzzaro, San Marcello Church (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today we look at our own words and how they also can be important to find God and to build up a good relationship with God.
Jewish men grow up going to the synagogue and temple where they witnessed prayers often. You would think they then know to Whom we should pray, why and what result it can have. In the first century of this common era there were people who found an interesting man preaching about the Most High Elohim. That teacher spoke with awe about that heavenly Father, and told his onlookers he could do nothing without this heavenly Father. This rabbi often prayed with them to that heavenly Father.
These men came from homes in which their father was active in praying and now they had their leader also praying to that God of Abraham. They had seen enough examples how to pray, but still asked Jeshua, their master teacher, how to pray.

Luke 11:1  (RNKJV)
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Rabbi, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Jesus in Pray

Jesus in Pray (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For some time now Jesus had taught them by precept (Matthew 6:7-15) and example (Luke 9:29). More than once Jesus had taken time to pray to that God about Whom he spoke so much. Jesus very well knew that God and knew that he could not do anything without God. For those who think Jesus is God, they should then wonder if Jesus prayed to himself and told lies about his position and that one of his heavenly Father. Jesus told those around him that God is greater than him and does all the works (in case Jesus is God he would be the greatest of all and always would do his own wish and doing the works himself.) Jesus told them that it is God Who does all the work and is the One to whom we should ask to have things done.

When those Jewish men who had seen so many examples of praying now asked their teacher how they should pray, Jesus gave them the substance of the Model Prayer (in Matthew and Luke).

Matthew 6:7-15  (RNKJV)
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9 After this manner therefore pray ye:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amein.
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Jesus also had often used the books of King David showing people they had to use the right words when directing themselves to others and to God, never having false words or lies on their tongue.

Psalms 19:14  (RNKJV)
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O יהוה, my strength, and my redeemer.

When we try to live in the way God wants, offering ourselves in an acceptable way, using right words and not veil words, like we also would not use certain words to our friends, than we may direct ourselves to God as a close Friend and receive answers like a close Friend or loving Father would do.

Jesus assures his pupils also with comparing God with their own fathers who would treat them well.

Luke 11:11-13 (RNKJV)
11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

When people are sincerely looking for God, even when they are not convinced that He exist, they always can start trying to speak (= pray) to Him. Even if they do not yet believe in God, but ask that God to let them know if He really exists and what they have to do, for sure That God shall not let them in the dark, but shall bring them answers at the right time.

Jesus was always praying. Before he chose the apostles, he prayed. He prayed all night. He prayed in the garden before his arrest and even was daring to question his God to look at him who was willing to put his own wishes aside for doing the Will of God. (In case Jesus is God he naturally would always have done his own will)

Luke 22:42  (RNKJV)
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

In the worst moments of his life Jesus took up prayer, speaking to his heavenly Father, the One Spirit Jesus considered to be the Only One true God, to Whom we all should direct our prayers. Upon the piece of wood, when his final hour had come Jesus his final statements were prayers. The praying Jesus was impressive.
Like Jesus always talked, not to himself but to God, we also should not talk to ourselves all the time, but should be making time to talk to that God of Jesus, his disciples, the Jews, Zacharia, Jeremiah, Isaiah, David, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham and many other men of God.
Jesus prayed to God because that’s what fellowship with God demands and needs. He did it because he wanted to have a good relationship with his heavenly Father, the Only One True God.

Jesus wanted others to come to know God. with Jesus we also find a person who is showing the way to God. It is one man who we should trust and follow his example and words. When we look at the Words of God, in the Bible, we do find that God is pointing out to that sent one He promised. And God’s promises are not like those of man. God is well able to fulfil all that He has promised. He is all mighty to ensure that His Word will come true and will be honoured.

The Old Testament or Covenant, meaning a solemn undertaking, shows us how God has mercy with man and wants to guide them. Jesus and his disciples read and studied those books and considered them the Word of God to be taken at heart.
Jesus explained the things the people could not understand about some of those old sayings form those books.
By listening to what Jesus says about those old saying of the prophets and history writers, we can come to a better understanding. Those sayings of Christ can be found in the New Testament, where we are offered a New Covenant by Christ Jesus, the Messiah. He has become the mediator between God and man, and we should make use of him.

1 Timothy 2:5  (RNKJV)
For there is one Elohim, and one mediator between Elohim and men, the man Yahushua the Messiah;

This mediator can be our advocate, but he also prepared the way so that we can talk directly to God. That provision we should use gratefully.

We should consider prayer to be a conversation. Our prayers when directed to God is talking to God. It is not talking to God when we pray to virgins, Christophers, Thomasses or other saints. Like Jesus talked to God, his heavenly Father we too should talk to our heavenly Father. Like not every prayer of Jesus was the same, our prayers also do not have to be the same. The opposite God expects us not to mumble all the time the same words in the same order. God even does not like repetitious prayers.

Ecclesiastes 5:2  (RNKJV)
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before Elohim: for Elohim is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

Ecclesiastes 5:7  (RNKJV)
For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou Elohim.

Matthew 6:7  (TS2009)
“And when praying, do not keep on babbling like the nations. For they think that they shall be heard for their many words.

When we love to have a good relationship with people around us, we are going to talk to them. When we have good friends and want to be close to them we are going to talk regularly and openly with them. With are parents we shall talk often and tell them lots of things. The same or even more with our heavenly Father. wit god it is best to communicate openly and honestly with  because He knows our heart and knows everything of us.

When we do not know God, He knows us already. He wants us to communicate with Him and us coming to Him. Please, in case you are looking for God or if you want an intimate relationship with Him, do not hesitate to contact Him and to talk to Him, what we also call praying to Him.

You do not need a specific place. Any place is good to come to talk to God. You do not have to speak loud. You can think the words in yourself. By thinking those words you want to bring over to God, you are bringing them over. You may do it in your own language and in your own words at any time of the day or night. God is always there to hear your thoughts and see what is moving your heart.

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Preceding articles

Words to bring into a good relationship

About the Lord’s prayer

People Seeking for God 7 The Lord and lords

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Additional reading:

  1. 7000 to 20000 words spoken each day
  2. Walking alone?
  3. Experiencing God
  4. God, my father, my closest friend
  5. People who know how to pray to move God to take hold of our affairs in a mighty way
  6. A Living Faith #7 Prayer
  7. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
  8. Religious people and painful absence of spring of living water
  9. Being sure of their deliverance
  10. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
  11. God should be your hope
  12. Praying and thinking positively
  13. Does God hear prayer?
  14. God Helper and Deliverer
  15. Gods promises
  16. Belief of the things that God has promised
  17. Gods measure not our measure
  18. God showing how far He is willing to go to save His children
  19. Listening and Praying to the Father
  20. Prayer, important aspect in our life
  21. Genuine prayer
  22. Be sound in mind and be vigilant with a view to prayers
  23. Be vigilant with a view to prayers
  24. Natural inclinations and Praying and asking
  25. Praying is surrendering in all circumstances
  26. Praying and acts of meditation without ceasing
  27. Always rejoicing Praying constantly Giving thanks for everything
  28. Worship and worshipping
  29. Praise Jehovah
  30. Praise and give thanks to God the Most Highest
  31. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #2 Calling upon the Name of God
  32. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
  33. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #5 Prayer #3 Callers upon God
  34. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #7 Prayer #5 Listening Ear
  35. Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
  36. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray
  37. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
  38. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #11 Prayer #9 Making the Name Holy
  39. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #13 Prayer #11 Name to be set apart
  40. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
  41. Praise the God with His Name
  42. Does God answer prayer?
  43. Gods non answer
  44. Faithful to the leastening ear
  45. Wishing to do the will of God
  46. God of gods
  47. A god between many gods
  48. Hashem השם, Hebrew for “the Name”
  49. I Will Cause Your Name To Be Remembered
  50. Lord or Yahuwah, Yeshua or Yahushua
  51. Jehovah Yahweh Gods Name
  52. Archeological Findings the name of God YHWH
  53. Titles of God beginning with the Aleph in Hebrew
  54. Use of /Gebruik van Jehovah or/of Yahweh in Bible Translations/Bijbel vertalingen
  55. Without God no purpose, no goal, no hope
  56. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
  57. Golden rule for understanding in spiritual matters obedience
  58. Happy who’s delight is only in the law of Jehovah
  59. Rest thy delight on Jehovah
  60. Old Man of Prayer
  61. Biblical Prayer at Tabernacle Site Shilo
  62. What moves mountains? Trust!
  63. If you think you’re too small to be effective
  64. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything
  65. Give your worries to God
  66. Work with joy and pray with love

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Further articles on praying

  1. Why bother being silent?
  2. Proverbs: Wisdom’s Call-Hard Words
  3. Less pride and more praise – That’s what we need, Lord.
  4. when your job is to pray on the job
  5. Re-commit
  6. Jesus Showed Up
  7. The Prayers of a Righteous Man
  8. Does God Pray? – Katherine Sonderegger
  9. Learning how to NOT pray and ignoring spirits
  10. Thank God For His Grace And Mercy
  11. Prayer for our children
  12. Stuffed to Bursting
  13. Psalm 23 (1b)
  14. Hallowed and Holy…
  15. Thy kingdom Come…
  16. The Power of Prayer

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Luther on Being a Theologian: Oratio, Meditatio and Tentatio

Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Latin theologian. His writing on free will and original sin remains influential in Western Christendom.

The world has created so called scientists in the knowledge of God. Lots of people do put all their trust in such scholars who received a degree in theology at a university.
The majority of those theologians are as most of them would consider a theologian is,

“one who is dedicated to life in Christ and the contemplation of the Holy Trinity.” {What Does It Mean To Be a Theologian; by David Russell Mosley}

For many who studied the godsThe Philokalia“, a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters”, was their primary guide for what it meant to be a theologian.

We always should know that to come to know God and to worship God we do not have to be people who have a university degree in theology, but we should be people who take time to study the bible. Lots of theologians have spend more time in studying writings of other human beings instead of looking more closely at the Word of God, the Bible. When you look at the theology courses, you will notice much more time is spend at those human writings, philosophy and human doctrines than at Biblical doctrines. No wonder that there have been much more books written by trinitarian scholars than by non-trinitarian Christians, because for the latter it is evident what is written in the Bible is the truth and as such in the non-trinitarian denominations of Christianity there are not so many divisions or matters of dispute as in the trinitarian denominations of Christendom.

We should remember that each of us has to be a theologian, a person who wants to know and worships the Only One True God of gods. A knowledge of the other gods may help in this, but the main focus should be on the real True Divine Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jakob and of Jeshua, who is mostly known as Jesus Christ by English speaking countries.

Each person who claims to be a Christian should be a follower of Christ and should worship the same God Christ worshipped, namely his heavenly Father. Like Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father we also should pray to that God of Jesus, Jehovah the Most Almighty God. That Oratio (prayer) should be grounded in the Word of God.

God cannot tempted, but Jesus was and we also shall be tempted more than once. This Tentatio (affliction) is not something God uses to drive us a way from self, but is our own selfish will because we are so much busy with ourselves. In case we would be more busy with the Will of God we would not be so much and so often suffering from our wrongdoing. Then we would also be more forthcoming to God His Will and would be more able, like Christ did not his own will, not to do our own will but being happy to do God’s Will.

To avoid going astray we do need the Meditatio (meditation) which should be the continual study of the Holy Scriptures and not so much the study of the many theological works by human beings.

We should trust more the Call and the Voice of God instead the voices of so many people who call themselves theologian, whatever they may mean by that word.

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Preceding articles

Mental Enslavement and Sins Syndrome (MESS)

Some one or something to fear #7 Not afraid for Gods Name

Pascal’s Possibility

Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings

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Additional reading

  1. The importance of Reading the Scriptures
  2. No other god besides Jehovah who gives all explanation
  3. God’s forgotten Word 3 Lost Lawbook 2 Modern scepticism
  4. Theologians and a promised Spirit to enlighten us
  5. Necessity of a revelation of creation 9 Searching the Scriptures
  6. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
  7. Necessity of a revelation of creation 14 Searching the scriptures
  8. Missional hermeneutics 1/5
  9. Missional hermeneutics 5/5
  10. Approachers of ideas around gods, philosophers and theologians
  11. To find ways of Godly understanding
  12. Position of the Bible researcher
  13. Theology without spirituality sterile academic exercise
  14. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
  15. Being Missional
  16. Christendom Astray The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
  17. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
  18. Our life depending on faith
  19. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach
  20. Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
  21. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
  22. The meek one riding on an ass
  23. Does there have to be a Holy Trinity Mystery
  24. Altered to fit a Trinity
  25. the Trinity – the Truth

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Further related writings

  1. What Hath the Church to do with the Library?
  2. Theology of Experience
  3. … 506 years ago
  4. The Calvinist ‘God’ and God
  5. Jealous God | Jealous for God
  6. So, Here Goes…
  7. The Angelic Doctor
  8. Good Morning January 25
  9. What Makes a Theologian
  10. The Pastor Theologian
  11. A Quote from St. Augustine on “The State”
  12. Theology as Discipleship
  13. 43rd of 2015.
  14. What Does It Mean To Be a Theologian
  15. What is Distinctive about Christian Analytic Theology?
  16. Pulpit Supply: Sunday School: Four Key Concepts to be a better Theologian
  17. Theologian Spotlight: Kathryn Tanner
  18. Saint Augustine
  19. Puritan John Owen – Doctrine of the Spirit and Mortification of Sin (Christian audio book)
  20. C.S. Lewis Died on This Date
  21. Albert Schweitzer
  22. Jean Guitton
  23. Biblical Christian Theology: Definition by DR. Donald E. Battle
  24. DR. Donald E. Batle: Theologian And Christology Scholar
  25. Who is qualified to write theology?
  26. What is the Recipe to Survive in the Storms of Life?
  27. Crossing Divides: Can an Atheist be a Chaplain?
  28. So Now I’m a Christian. Now What? Part 4:The Loving, Triune God
  29. Thought on the Trinity, Its Being Less than Mysterious, and the Biblical Support of an Analogy to It
  30. The Incarnation a Contradiction?
  31. 1 Corinthians 10:15 (Don’t Take My Word For It)
  32. Christ Strengthens You

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Gospel & Gratitude

In John Doberstein’s The Minister’s Prayerbook, he discusses Martin Luther’s understanding of the development of a theologian. Luther believed that the “right way to study theology” is anchored in the three rules set forth in Psalm 119: Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio. For Luther “Everything centers around the practice of meditation, for prayer prepares for it and its results are confirmed in the experience of conflict. For Luther, meditation is the key to the study of theology. No one can become a true theologian unless he learns theology through it” (Kleinig, “The Kindred Heart”, 142). The discussion that follows is taken directly from Doberstein and explores each of the three dimensions.

  • Oratio (prayer) is grounded in the Word of the Lord. Prayer is the voice of faith. That is to say, that prayer grows out of the Word of the Lord. “The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not…

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October month of witches and spirits

October month and old religions

This week in many regions of the world attention is given to witch culture and spirits, non-corporeal substances contrasted with the material body. We come in a period when it becomes earlier darker and people love to tell ghost stories and look into the matter of incorporeal or immaterial beings, such as demons or deities. Several people love to come in contact with wandering spirits, daemon sprites, supernatural legendary creatures or ghosts.

The prince thanking the Water sprite, from The Princess Nobody by Andrew Lang

In our regions there came a time (Middle Ages) those who practised the Old Religion and worked with herbs and charms were largely ignored by the church and the Inquisition. After the scourge of the Black Death, witchcraft trials began to increase steadily throughout the 14th and 15th centuries.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the figure of the European witch was interpreted and reinterpreted in numerous ways, depending on the orientations of the scholars involved. They described her (typically) as variously an antisocial practitioner of malevolent magic; as a pro-social healer, midwife, and magician condemned by churches and universities; as a victim of mental illness or of accidental poisoning by mind-altering plants; or as a deliberate user of mind-altering plants who sought a shamanic “soul flight.”

Alleged murders by witchcraft and subsequent trials for witchcraft have not disappeared from the world scene, and the fear of cursing, hexing, and causing death by witchcraft remains very powerful in many nations. Black Magic murders have taken place in different states and times.

But some practices intrigued people and the will to know what happens when a person dies made that those intrigued found enough people who were willing to still their hunger to the unknown. fortune tellers always have found popularity and spiritists found always a groups of interested people to come together in private houses to have a special experience with a medium.

The unknown before and after life and Voodoo

Because of the attractive element of the unknown concerning before and after life, plus about the influences on our health, churches made use of the popular ideas of spirits and healing powers. Even in the 20th and 21st century some faith healing is performed in services conducted by the clergy of Christendom and there are communities which celebrate witch nights and halloween. The Noite Meiga (Witch‘s Night), held the last Saturday of August in the municipality Sarria which stands out in the Camino de Santiago for being the population centre with the largest offering of services, is also quite a spectacle and a grand feast in the so called Roman Catholic country of Italy. In many countries where they had negro slaves the pagan rituals and witchcraft melted into the Catholic traditions.

The spiritual practices and beliefs of those enslaved people from Africa and the Caribbean blended. Voodoo became a fusion of their religions which also incorporated Catholicism. {Voodoo in New Orleans}

In countries like Haiti the official religion along with Roman Catholicism is Voodoo, but they are both so interwoven you may find also in the Catholic Church in Haiti voodoo rites.

“In churches, there’s a lot of syncretism (or the combination of multiple religions),”

says David Vanderpool, a missionary and doctor in Haiti.
Vanderpool is the founder and CEO of LiveBeyond, a faith-based, humanitarian organization bringing medical and maternal health care, clean water, education, orphan care, community development and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the oppressed in Thomazeau, Haiti.

“Voodoo is the culture, the way they think. They view the world through a lens of voodoo, and it colours what they do, what they see. They bring it unwittingly into the church, and see mainstream denominations as no different from voodoo.”

Many do not see that they have elements of satanic worship which can be traced to colonization when the French demanded African slaves convert to Catholicism. Rather than fully converting, the slaves named their idols after saints, and the worship of the demons was incorporated into the church.

“The term voodoo,”

says Encyclopædia Britannica,

“is derived from the word vodun, which denotes a god, or spirit, in the language of the Fon people of Benin (formerly Dahomey).”

The most common depiction of the loa Erzulie Dantor is derived from this variant of the sacred icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

In Voodoo they may well tell there is only one god, one Supreme Being who created the universe, and this may link back to the Creator Deity in which the people of Israel also believed. The people who like to practice ‘Voodo art’ say this god elevated earthly beings to spirits known as the Lwa or Loa to run the day to day affairs of the world. It is this taking charge of nature and human nature which is in conflict with Bible teaching. For them there is for instance lwas of the winds, love and fisherman. {Voodoo in New Orleans}

They tell they can be master over demons who actively deceive mankind by means of spiritism, which can involve such things as magic spells, voodoo, and spirit mediums. (Deuteronomy 18:10-13; 2 Chronicles 33:6).

Wanting to get in touch with demons and spirits

This particular time of year many are proud to “get in touch with the demons” directly or through a human medium. This is called spiritism about which the Bible tells us we have to abstain from it. Voodoo, witchcraft, magic, fortune-telling, and inquiring of the dead are all forms of spiritism.

The Bible condemns these things, saying:

“There should not be found in you anyone . . . who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah.”—Deuteronomy 18:10-12.

Among non-Christian religions there are voodoo priests, witch doctors, medicine men, and others who also do healing and incantation; they often employ magic and divination. Some “psychic healers” say that their cures have nothing to do with religion.

Coming closer to for many special days to remember spirits, spiritual beings and the dead many want to convince others that

The spirit world is concerned with each and every one of us.

and say that

Our guardian angels take no pleasure seeing us struggle, since they have all been there before. Even though, they comprehend that most times we need the suffering presented to us. But within the confines of letting us survive and learn from our trials, the spirit world actively guides and helps us {How we are assisted during our Trials by the Spirit World}

In the upcoming writings we shall show that there is no such spirit world and that we are not looked after by a spirit world. We also shall show that there is no such thing as a process of reincarnation, which others may confirm may be complex even after birth.  {How we are assisted during our Trials by the Spirit World}

Communicating spirits

It is not because our spirits (our minds) can communicate directly with other people that they would connect with other non-materialistic beings, called “spirits”. In our dreams, our thinking we certainly may learn a lot, but this does not mean that  during our slumber, we learn many valuable lessons from spirits and would “have various conversations with other spirits”. {How we are assisted during our Trials by the Spirit World}  No body was ever able to retain exact memories of such encounters. But some  awaken with general ideas and feelings, which is only because they are fed by such ideas.

If we search for the answer it will come, not because

The spirit world wishes to supply us with all of the tools and inspirations required to prosper while we live on earth. They fully realize the day-to-day problems we encounter, complications which hinder our ability to absorb the lessons we should learn. {How we are assisted during our Trials by the Spirit World}

It is not the spirit world which gently pushes us to the correct solution, but each person is created in the image of God and has an inner feeling implanted by the Supreme Being. We have to listen to our conscience, that governor of our behaviour, with years of experience in many lives, and perform our deeds with moral clarity.

Pagan Samhain and Halloween

Some people bring as excuse that they are unaware of the pagan origins of Halloween symbols, decorations, and customs, most of which are related to supernatural beings and occult forces. In many places meetings are given and people are called to witness a witch meeting or even a black mass. Thousands of Wiccans (practitioners of witchcraft), who follow ancient Celtic rituals, still call Halloween by the ancient name Samhain and consider it to be the most sacred night of the year.

“Christians ‘don’t realize it, but they’re celebrating our holiday with us. . . . We like it,’”

stated the newspaper USA Today when quoting a professed witch.

In shops we can find all sorts of costumes and in magazines articles about spirits which find their way to many homes.

Christians may not forget that celebrations like Halloween are in conflict with Bible teachings. The Bible warns:

“There must never be anyone among you who . . . practices divination, who is soothsayer, augur or sorcerer, who uses charms, consults ghosts or spirits, or calls up the dead.” (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11, The Jerusalem Bible)

10 There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire,+ anyone who employs divination,+ anyone practicing magic,+ anyone who looks for omens,+ a sorcerer,+ 11 anyone binding others with a spell, anyone who consults a spirit medium+ or a fortune-teller,+ or anyone who inquires of the dead.+ (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11, NWT)

see also

Leviticus 19:31:

31 “‘Do not turn to the spirit mediums,+ and do not consult fortune-tellers+ so as to become unclean by them. I am Jehovah your God.

Galatians 5:19-21:

19 Now the works of the flesh are plainly seen, and they are sexual immorality,*+ uncleanness, brazen conduct,*+ 20 idolatry, spiritism,*+ hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, dissensions, divisions, sects, 21 envy, drunkenness,+ wild parties,* and things like these.+ I am forewarning you about these things, the same way I already warned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.+

Human Autumn traditions

We are living in this world were there are lots of traditions going on, but that does not mean we do have to take part in those traditional activities or do not have to let others know we do not want to take part in such activities.

From within our heart comes our feeling, which should in accordance to the Will of God. A copper-based alloy may deform in colour and so our being when it has a brazen conduct or “shameless conduct.” We should not be proud of a conduct which is not in line with the teachings of Christ and with the commandments of the Most High Almighty God. We have to cause ourselves and others to move in a certain direction, which is in line with the wishes of God. We do have to comport (oneself) in a specified way which is indicated in the Words of God and which everybody can find. We have to bear or conduct (oneself) in the Christian way, being in agreement, harmony, or conformity with the Word of God.

Mark 7:21, 22: 21 For from inside, out of the heart of men,+ come injurious reasonings, sexual immorality,* thefts, murders, 22 acts of adultery, greed, acts of wickedness, deceit, brazen conduct,* an envious eye, blasphemy, haughtiness, and unreasonableness.

The Bible warns us that people will go away from that Word of God and would prefer to do the things most people do.

Jude 4: My reason is that certain men have slipped in among you who were long ago appointed to this judgment by the Scriptures; they are ungodly men who turn the undeserved kindness of our God into an excuse for brazen conduct*+ and who prove false to our only owner* and Lord, Jesus Christ.+

Let us take that warning to heart that such people are not real lovers of God but they are ungodly or “wicked men” (UKJV).

They turn the grace of our God into uncontrollable lust and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 4:4 ISV)

We may not make the mercy of God an excuse for profligacy.

Those who like to participate in the October festivities of drinking lots of alcohol [The Oktober Fest: world’s largest Volksfest (beer festival and travelling funfair)], witch gatherings, Celtic Autumn meetings, Halloween celebrations, should know that many will follow their licentiousness, following their indulgences and because of them, carrying out every impurity with rapacity, the way of truth will be reviled or blasphemed.

Ephesians 4:19: 19 Having gone past all moral sense, they gave themselves over to brazen conduct*+ to practice every sort of uncleanness with greediness.

2 Peter 2:2: Furthermore, many will follow their brazen conduct,*+ and because of them the way of the truth will be spoken of abusively.+

Reincarnation, spirits and spiritism

Many spiritists believe in reincarnation. One spiritist publication states:

Reincarnation is the only doctrine that measures up to our idea of divine justice; it is the only doctrine that can explain the future and strengthen our hopes.”

Spiritists explain that at death the soul, or “incarnated spirit,” leaves the body—like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. They believe that these spirits are later reincarnated as humans in order to purge sins committed in an earlier life. But there is no recollection of those earlier sins.

“God considered it convenient that a veil be cast over the past,”

says The Gospel According to Spiritism.

“To deny reincarnation is also to deny the words of Christ,”

wrote Allan Kardec. But Jesus never preached incarnation. He knew that for God “reincarnation” is an atrocity and no human being should be busy with this at all. All Christians should see that the Bible tells clearly that at death our life comes to and end and than it is finished with us. Than we shall not be able to think or to do anything.
The sent one from God came to tell that there is hope for the living souls who believe in God and live according His Laws. For him it was clear that he could fulfil the promise made in the Garden of Eden and be the Messiah, bringing grace over mankind. For that reason Jesus taught the resurrection of the dead.

Persons coming out of the dead

During his earthly ministry, the Jewish Nazarene did some spectacular miracles. He also resurrected three people — the son of a widow in Nain, the daughter of the presiding officer of a synagogue, and his close friend Lazarus. (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43; Luke 7:11-15; John 11:1-44) They had been in the grave and had come back to life but had nothing to tell about some other world down in the earth or at some other place. Later they died again and their body decayed like any other body shall do when life goes out of it.

The world of the dead may be mysterious for us and many may be attracted to come to know “what is over there”. Some people, like witches may make use of that situation and present others some rites of passage.

In order to assist a soul cross over at the time of death, those of the Wicca (and those not of the Wicca – but other witchcraft traditions) have a number of rituals called “Crossings.” {Rite of Passage}

Witches, covens and their rites

Witch Riding Backwards On A Goat

Witch Riding Backwards On A Goat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The witches their coven or or covan, which is a gathering or community of witches, much like a congregation in Christian parlance, may present in the continuation of the Witch-Cult and may try others to believe certain herbs can give them special powers and with certain rites they also can come in contact with pieces of the soul that went on or could be left behind and which are prevented from passing on to the next level. Many wiccans feel it is their duty to help these spirits when they are able to assist with passage and transition.

According to the U.S. Census, the number of individuals professing to be Wiccans rose from the 8,000 reported in 1990 to 134,000 self-proclaimed witches in 2001. A study released in November 2001 by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found that the number of adults who subscribe to a pagan religion was more than 140,000. {Wicca;Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained, 2003}

Those who follow Wicca, the craft of the wise, maintain that their faith qualifies as a true pagan religion with its beliefs and practices rooted in the processes of nature. {Wicca;Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained, 2003}

Because of Wicca’s rapid growth, however, some adherents now seek more formal organizational plans and credentialing of leaders (priests and priestesses), a trend resisted by those Witches who hold individual and small-group practice and experience to be primary. Wiccans often identify with a particular “tradition”—a school of teaching or an initiatory lineage—but the boundaries between traditions are loosely drawn, and new traditions are constantly being created. {Wicca; Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 2001,The Gale Group Inc.}

Estimates of the number of Wiccans in North America in 2000 ranged from 300,000 to the low millions. Sociological studies of Wicca show its followers as tending to be younger and better-educated than the population overall. {Wicca; Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 2001,The Gale Group Inc.}

Manifestations and phenomena

According to some sources wiccans do not believe that there is anything supernatural about the manifestations and phenomena associated with this extrasensory area of the mind, but others play with phenomena which are very curious. For them it are psychic powers which lie dormant in everyone, to a greater or lesser degree, and their disciplines are designed to develop these to the fullest.

Wicca conceives of spirit as part of the universal creative principle, existing as a thought form. In keeping with its transcendental nature, Wicca views spirit as the convenient expression for a certain kind of matter, which is thought to contain a dynamic energy of its own. This energy is capable of being transmitted by means of mental activity and can be used to transmute other forms of energy into matter. {Wicca;Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained, 2003}

Working with the Dead

The covens are usually jointly led by a High Priestess and a High Priest, though some are led by only one or the other. In more recent forms of neopagan witchcraft, covens are sometimes run as democracies with a rotating leadership. In the group all try to get control over the elements, how to “whistle up the wind” and call the rain, etc. {Council Cup} They also set out meals for those who are “gone from this world”.  They have a “Dumb Supper” which is a form of group necromancy where they think

the spirits of the dearly departed are set out a special meal (and a meal for yourself too) and is partaken of in silence in order to commune with our dearly departed. {Necromancy and the Dumb Supper}

In some covens, necromancy rituals are performed for 13 nights in a row to summon the appropriate and correct spirits. {Necromancy and the Dumb Supper}

For the wiccans it is a form of working with the Dead{Necromancy and the Dumb Supper} but according God’s Word the dead do know nothing and can do nothing because they are nothing but dust. The idea that a spirit part of humans survives at death and can communicate with the living in not according to God’s Word.

The death, dead people, wicked people, demons and spirits

Jehovah was the first to speak of death. He warned that Adam and Eve would die if they disobeyed him. (Genesis 2:17) What did that mean? Jehovah explained:

“Dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19)

At death the body disintegrates; it goes back to the dust. Life ceases.

In the Holy Scriptures demons and spirits are mentioned. As an adult, Jesus encountered “wicked spirit creatures”. We are even told that they recognized Jesus and addressed him as the “Son of God.” Jesus likewise knew who they were. They were not spirits of dead humans. Rather, Jesus identified them as “demons,” or unclean spirits, people who were ill in their head, or had a disease. — Matthew 8:29-31; 10:8; Mark 5:8.

When there is spoken of Tartarus it is not a particular location, but a condition. Those whose breath goes out of their body are considered death by the Holy Scriptures. As soon as the brain does not function any more, life is gone out of a person and that person is belonging to the dead. The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around. Even the sick persons or the “possessed” or “demons” can no longer materialize and do not have any power or influence over minds and lives. It are the ideas of people which can continue to hover in the minds of folks. Those ideas can continue to grow in our mind and bring us unto other ideas. But it are not persons or some spiritual beings which do that.

The Bible tells us that

“The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all . . . Their love and their hate and their jealousy [all of which they felt while alive] have already perished.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6)

Yes, the Bible teaches that the dead are just that—dead!
They cannot think, act, or even worship God.

“The dead do not praise [God]; nor do any who go down into the silence of death,” says Psalm 115:17.

When the breath goes out of our body we shall not be able to speak any more but also not be able to think or do anything. Everything shall be finished and nobody shall be able to contact us again. Then it is too late for us to do something to others and too late for others to do something for us.

The living and the dead

The living “are conscious”, but dead or not conscious any more. When living on this earth we can do things and shall have to sweat, but once we die it is all finished and we shall not feel anything any more. Having paid for our sins there shall be no need any more to suffer for what we have done wrong and we shall land up were everybody of this world will end, the grave (hell, sheol, sepulchre). Even if we would have lots of money or many titles, we shall not being able to escape death and to become something again.

Genesis 3:19: 19 In the sweat of your face you will eat bread* until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.+ For dust you are and to dust you will return.”+

Psalm 104:29: 29 When you hide your face, they are disturbed. If you take away their spirit, they die and return to the dust.+

Ecclesiastes 3:20: 20 All are going to the same place.+ They all come from the dust,+ and they all are returning to the dust.+

Ecclesiastes 12:7: Then the dust returns to the earth,+ just as it was, and the spirit* returns to the true God who gave it.+

Job 34:14, 15: 14 If he fixes his attention* on them, If he gathers their spirit and breath to himself,+ 15 All humans* would perish together, And mankind would return to the dust.+

Psalm 146:3, 4: Do not put your trust in princes* Nor in a son of man, who cannot bring salvation. His spirit* goes out, he returns to the ground;+ On that very day his thoughts perish.+

Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20:19 for there is an outcome* for humans and an outcome for animals; they all have the same outcome.+ As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit.+ So man has no superiority over animals, for everything is futile. 20 All are going to the same place.+ They all come from the dust,+ and they all are returning to the dust.+

For our own welfare

For our own welfare, Jehovah warns us against all forms of spiritism. He loves and cares for people, and he knows that those who get involved with demons or spiritism are bound to suffer.

Jehovah God’s Law to the nation of Israel also said:

“There should not be found in you anyone . . . who consults a spirit medium or . . . inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to Jehovah.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

The Bible also states that those who practice spiritism in any of its forms “will not inherit God’s Kingdom.”— Galatians 5:19-21.

Those who believe in god and believe in God His son, Jesus Christ, will have something positive to look forward, but it will not come to them straight ahead when they die. they shall be in the grave feeling and knowing of nothing, like they were before born. But there shall come a time that Jesus shall return to call the living and the dead together, to judge them and to open the gates to the Kingdom of God for all who lived according the Will of God.

+

Preceding articles:

Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience

Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences

Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists

Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one

Science, belief, denial and visibility 2

The Importance of the Prophetic

Autumn traditions for 2014 – 2 Summersend and mansend

Autumn traditions for 2014 – 3 Black Mass, Horror spectacles and pure puritans

Autumn traditions for 2014 – 4 Blasphemy and ridiculing faith in God

Reaction on the worship of devils in the Kingdom of Essex

All Saints’ Day

All Souls’ Day

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Additional reading:

  1. Religions and Mainliners
  2. 2014 Religion
  3. Bible sayings about God
  4. Human Nature: What does the Bible teach?
  5. Your life the sum total of all your choices
  6. A Living Faith #9 Our Manner of Life
  7. Dying or not
  8. Biblical Ambiguity on Death?
  9. Bible sayings on the situation and place for the dead
  10. What happens when we die?
  11. Ontbinding
  12. Souls and Religions with Nirvana and light
  13. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
  14. Decomposition, decay – vergaan, afsterven, ontbinding
  15. Where does Satan lives?
  16. What is life?
  17. The business of this life
  18. The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around
  19. Fear and protection
  20. Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12
  21. Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20
  22. Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
  23. Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31
  24. Fragments from the Book of Job #5: chapters 32-37
  25. Fragments from the Book of Job #6: chapters 38-42
  26. Self inflicted misery #6 Paying by death
  27. The Soul confronted with Death
  28. Phoenicians sacrificed infants
  29. Doctrine and Conduct Cause and Effect
  30. Faith antithesis of rationality
  31. Wishing to do the will of God
  32. This month’s survey question: Heaven and Hell
  33. Sheol, Sheool, Sjeool, Hades, Hell, Grave, Tomb, Sepulchre
  34. Departed Souls Await Judgment
  35. Two states of existence before God
  36. A time for everything
  37. We will all be changed
  38. The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
  39. The one who makes us well and gives life
  40. Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

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Further reading:

  1. Witchcraft
  2. Witchcraft in Europe, 1450 to 1789
  3. Wiccan, wicca (masc., “wizard”) and wicce (fem., “witch”)
  4. Witchcraft Trials
  5. How Meditation Changes Our Brains
  6. Where is the great Beyond?
  7. My kind of Halloween!
  8. He who goes to a medium should go with a clean inner life!
  9. Voodoo!
  10. What is Vodou?
  11. Voodoo in New Orleans
  12. Voodoo Queen
  13. Devil’s Seed
  14. Things that went BUMP! in the night in15th century Poland
  15. Really?
  16. Adsense Arbitrage Voodoo Review – Hot Or Not?
  17. Voodoo head dies…
  18. Leader Of Haitian Vodou Religion, Max Beauvoir, Dead At 79
  19. Voodoo practitioners mourn the death of leader Max Beauvoir
  20. Old time relijun
  21. Dispelling the myths of Voodoo
  22. New Orleans Experience – Day One!
  23. The Spooky Cemeteries of South Louisiana
  24. 31 Days of Voodoo at Voodoo Farm
  25. The Left-Hand Path, Magic, and Voodoo
  26. Using Creative Arts to Train Haitian Spiritual Leaders on Therapy for “Crooked” Thoughts
  27. Voodoo in Blue
  28. Walker Wednesday – 30/09/15
  29. Voodoo Village: South Africa
  30. An African Village where Dead Children are Made into Voodoo Dolls
  31. Papa Legba
  32. Hollywood Has Zombies all Wrong
  33. The Dark Side of Grace by M.L. Cooper
  34. Voodoo Village: Haiti
  35. Satanic ‘Zombified’ Religion Making Inroads in United States — Charisma News
  36. Soul food with a Voodoo touch
  37. Dirty Hands and Green Thumbs
  38. The Harley Quinn Voodoo String Doll Key Chain Handmade
  39. Jack Sparrow Voodoo String Doll Key Chain Handmade Pirates
  40. Rudimentary Chucky Voodoo String Doll Keychain
  41. Spiritists: When You Sleep You are Being Assisted in Your Quest to Become a Better Spiritist
  42. NDE’s – What people were told
  43. Bronwen’s Two NDE’s and her discoveries
  44. The Life Beyond the Veil – A book Psychographed by an English Reverend – G. Vale Owen
  45. A Course on How to Give Passes
  46. Why we should gladly suffer through our trials here on earth
  47. Want to know the Other Side of the NDE Judgment Experience – Swedenborg has examples
  48. Divine Providence Constantly Makes Sure We See What is True
  49. Mediumship
  50. Dreams and how the Spirit World Assists Us
  51. Spirit court
  52. Spirits, the Dearly Departed … and Reincarnation
  53. Rite of Passage
  54. Incarnation – Necessary for the Progression of the Spirit
  55. Gold Finch [Carduelis Tristis] Symbolic Meaning
  56. Stories of Spirit…Cleaning House [unwanted spirits activity]
  57. Business or Personal Journalling with the Tarot
  58. Seth Speaks: the eternal validity of the soul
  59. The Fox Sisters
  60. Demons and the Unexplained: Demonic Mysteries
  61. Demons USA: Demons in Everyday Life
  62. End Times Quote: Don’t Hang Around Demons
  63. DEMONS: Don't hang around demons.
  64. Exorcism: 10 Observations on Casting Out Demons
  65. Halloween 2014 Quotes: Halloween is Satanic and Demonic
  66. Our Fractal Nature – physics spinning
  67. “P” Poison Has Its Uses #atozchallenge
  68. Grave Silence #art #horrorweek #horror
  69. Reflections #horror #flashfiction #PEN
  70. A Forgotten Life the conclusion Atom
  71. Part One the domino effect
  72. Part Two Strangers
  73. Regret: ‘The Lives We Live’ A Reality Show – 5th Dismissal
  74. Beneath the Tree #2 #Christmas #children #abuse #poetry
  75. Interesting-stuff
  76. Yom Kippur 5776 ~ The Day of Atonement
  77. Submission
  78. The Commands of Yeshua ~ Part 28
  79. CASTING OUT DEMONS: More are familiar with Hollywood rituals than the Bible.
  80. Exposition on Romans 1
  81. Exposition on Romans 2
  82. Departed Souls Await Judgment
  83. The Soul is Not Dead
  84. The “Living” Word
  85. The Whole Point
  86. Created For Responsibility
  87. No More Me but Thee Lord!

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Being in tune with God

Too many Christians do forget that they have to come in unity with Christ and with God in the same manner that Jesus is one with God.

Too many Christians overlook that God has a purpose to save the world through Jesus; and what the importance is of the role of faith in Jesus as the means of salvation.
Too many Christians have made Jesus in their god instead of believing that he is a man of flesh and blood, who really was tempted (remember God cannot be tempted) and really died at his impalement (remember God cannot die).

In this son of God people can find rest. He not only did the will of his Father, and not his own will, which he would have done in case he is God, He shall not condemn us but judge us on how we reacted on his words and his showing the Way to God. We can not stay blind and deaf, and should react accordingly how we receive insight and take steps according the truth we find. Than we have to show if we want to stay of the world and preferring to keep to human dogmas or to be part of Christ not being of the world but of God, loving His commandments and believing His Words.

By accepting Jesus and following him we shall find life will become much easier to bear. In him we shall be able to find wholeness and well-being and the courage to come closer to his heavenly Father the One and Only True God.

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Additional reading:

  1. About unity
  2. Unity with Christ
  3. Outflow of foundational relationship based on acceptance of Jesus
  4. Maintaining unity of Spirit in the bond of peace becoming one with God
  5. Authority given to him To give eternal life
  6. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
  7. A participation in the body of Christ
  8. Preparation for unity
  9. Manifests for believers #5 Christian Union
  10. One Mind, One Accord
  11. Come ye yourselves apart … and rest awhile (Mark 6:31)
  12. Lonely in the crowd
  13. Atonement And Fellowship 4/8
  14. Atonement And Fellowship 6/8
  15. Unity doesn’t mean uniformity
  16. To whom do we want to be enslaved
  17. Let us become nothing, and Christ everything
  18. En Soma: One Body
  19. United people under Christ
  20. Commitment to Christian unity

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  • Unity (africanaprincess.wordpress.com)
    Within the body of Christ we all have a role and purpose and there is no distinction with the Lord. The Lord is the same over all who call on His name. We are all called to be a witness and to spread the Gospel to all nations.  Let your light shine so the world may know that you are in Christ Jesus!
  • What the Bible says about Worry/Anxiety (livinginhisfootsteps.wordpress.com)
    Don’t be anxious about anything, but pray in everything with thanksgiving. Then the incomprehensible peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
  • matthew 6: 33-34 (forwhatiwanticanwait.wordpress.com)
    Our Heavenly Father sustains birds that do not sow or reap; we need to have the faith that Jesus will sustain us. 
  • Reflection on Philippians 3 (jesusaves.net)
    Christ should be at the centre of all we do as we press forward towards the Goal of eternal life being already citizens of heaven. So let us rejoice in the Lord, be united in prayer and meditate on what is right and holy. This will help us put other’s needs before ours.
  • God Did Not Abandon Jesus – Conclusion (instrument-rated-theology.com)
    If God abandoned Jesus, even for a moment, for that moment Jesus was just a human. This is in clear contradiction to the entire message of the gospel of John.
    +
    If Jesus’s prayer for the church was based on his unity with his Father, and if that unity was “revoked” or “abandoned,” then what does that teach us about the unity of his believers? Can we accept division in Christ’s church because Jesus and his Father experienced division?
    +
    Jesus’s death was ultimately unnecessary. If God was with Jesus before Jesus died, and if he was with Jesus as he died, then the atonement was accomplished simply by the suffering of Jesus. His death was superfluous.
  • God’s Great Power (genesisone.wordpress.com)
    The same God who raised Jesus from the dead can raise us from spiritual death. Whether or not we perceived it at the time that power of God was operating in our lives in a way that assured us of eternal life – a life that physical death cannot harm.
  • Live with expectation (takeaminute.net)
    The term “born again” refers to spiritual birth (regeneration)—the Holy Spirit’s act of bringing believers into God’s family. Jesus used this concept of new birth when he explained salvation to Nicodemus (see John 3). This term is a wonderful metaphor of new life from God. You cannot be a Christian without a fresh beginning based on the salvation Christ brings. To be born again is a magnificent gift from God.
  • Romans 15:5-6 – May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind (church4u2.wordpress.com)
    May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    – Romans 15:5-6 (NIV)
  • Dig for Friday the 10th of April…. you’ve just got to love those buts #02…..Romans 6 v23 (heilanword.wordpress.com)
    The love of God towards us and our righteousness through faith in Jesus are the keys to living a holy life.
  • Being Certain In Uncertain Times (elizabethnmary.wordpress.com)
    Let us be not dismayed for the uncertainty of this world, for there is a better world to come for those who remain certain that our God will never fail!

Christian teaching

John 5:19-20; 30

We went through John chapter 5 in some detail last Summer. But I want to go back to it today, or to a few verses from it, to look at a particular topic – being in tune with God so that we do his will.

I think we all know in general what God’s will is for our lives from the Scriptures. For instance we are to share the good news of Jesus, and we are to love our neighbors. But I want to cast a vision for you of being so in synch with God that we not only know the general framework of God’s will, but we can also be guided by God in very specific ways in specific situations.

So God opens a door for you to share the gospel, and you know how to do this, but you are also listening for what…

View original post 1,492 more words

Lovers of God, seekers and lovers of truth

Accusations

The previous weeks we got very strong reactions at certain things we said about God and His son on the net and on our replies to certain writings on the net about Jesus, God and the Christadelphians.

Title page to the ASV

Title page to the ASV (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On several websites we where accused of being a sect and of being God haters and/or Jesus haters. When we tried to give a polite answer with what we could find in the Bible and how we funded our believes on the Holy Scriptures we were silenced and did not get an opportunity to show where our believes came from and why they are not so stupid.

The bad language send to us, plus other negative elements like viruses and Trojan horses, made us not afraid to find other ways of giving a reply or showing people what we think, why we think it and why there is reason not to consider Christadelphians being a sect or cult.

Apostolic times and Jesus’ definition of God

At the beginning of the apostolic times the followers of Christ Jesus were considered to be a Jewish sect. Their faith was based on the classic traditional monotheist faith of the People of God, the People of Israel, the Jews. Jesus coming from an Essene, and therefore a very traditional devout Jewish family, grew up in a family where they believed in Only One God. Jesus also worshipped the God of Abraham, which was considered by the Jews the Only One True God.

The Christadelphians do have the same faith as the Jews, in the Only One True God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Jesus was in perfect agreement with a Jewish scribe, as together they discussed the greatest of all questions we humans must face. Who is God?
So prepare now to hear what Jesus commands us in terms of our definition of God.

In the New testament we do find:

“24 Jesus said unto them, Is it not for this cause that ye err, that ye know not the scriptures, nor the power of God? 25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as angels in heaven. 26 But as touching the dead, that they are raised; have ye not read in the book of Moses, in [the place concerning] the Bush, how God spake unto him, saying, {1} I [am] the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? {1) Ex 3:6} 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: ye do greatly err.

28  And one of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, What commandment is the first of all? 29 Jesus answered, The first is, {1} Hear, O Israel; {2} The Lord our God, the Lord is one: {1) De 6:4 ff 2) Or [The Lord is our God; the Lord is one]} 30 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God {1} with all thy heart, and {1} with all thy soul, and {1} with all thy mind, and {1} with all thy strength. {1) Gr [from]} 31 The second is this, {1} Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. {1) Le 19:18} 32 And the scribe said unto him, Of a truth, Teacher, thou hast well said that he is one; and there is none other but he:” (Mark 12:24-32 ASV)

God being the One Who is One

Excerpt of the book of Exodus from the The Gre...

Excerpt of the book of Exodus from the The Great Bible (entitled The Byble in Englyshe), publ. 1540. The English form Iehovah (Jehovah as the “J” stands for both I and the later J) is used for the Tetragrammaton at Exodus 6:3. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Clearly for Jesus the Most High Elohim Creator deity is only One as is also written in the Book Deuteronomy of the Old Testament

“Hear, O Israel: {1} Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: {1) Or [Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one]; Or [Jehovah is our God, Jehovah is one]; Or [Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone]}” (Deuteronomy 6:4 ASV)
For Jeshua or Jesus Jehovah is his God and is only one, not two or three.
Jesus also added we should love that One God with all our heart.

“And he said unto him, {1} Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. {1) De 6:5}” (Matthew 22:37 ASV)“And he answering said, {1} Thou shalt love the Lord thy God {2} with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; {3} and thy neighbor as thyself. {1) De 6:5. 2) Gr [from] 3) Le 19:18}” (Luke 10:27 ASV)

We as Christadelphians do love God and do love His creation. They want to open their heart to all people and not only just to some who belong to the same denomination as they. We also want to give attention to other minded persons and do respect them for what they think and feel. This cannot be said about those who call themselves Christians and attack us.

Jewish unitarian creed and Jesus’ creed

As we can find in the New Testament Jesus stated that God is a single Lord. He uttered the Jewish unitarian creed and made it the pinnacle of good Christian understanding and practice.

What else can we say about this One God of Jesus’ creed?

He could not possibly be the triune God of traditional Christendom. Jesus is on record as recognizing no god but the God of his Jewish heritage based on the Scriptures preserved as God’s oracles. That God was never the Trinity. Jesus was not a Trinitarian, on the plainest evidence of his testimony in Mark 12:28-34. He himself never claimed to be God and knew very well he could not do anything without his Father in heaven.

“Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.” (John 5:19 ASV)

“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.” (John 5:30 ASV)

God’s Will and Jesus’ will

In case Jesus is God Jesus would do his own will by doing the Will of God and nothing would be to difficult for him. But Jesus clearly tells us he was placed on this earth not to do his will but the Will of the One Who had sent Jesus and was not him but God. Jesus also submitted himself totally to the Will of God.

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

“Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that {1} I am [he], and [that] I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things. {1) Or [I am] he: [and I do]}” (John 8:28 ASV)

Jesus also not speaks out of himself but brings the Word of the one Who sent him and Who commands him. We believe those words written in the scriptures which tell us about Jesus his position.

 “For I spake not from myself; but the Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.” (John 12:49 ASV)

“Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works.” (John 14:10 ASV)

God’s call to be seekers and lovers of truth

God calls us to be lovers of truth and seekers of truth. Jesus let his followers know that they should search those Scriptures and belief the Words of God.

We would not like it to see our heart hardened like the one of the Pharaoh of Egypt, him refusing to believe God’s agents, Moses and Aaron. The same we would not like our ears to be deaf like the ones of the sons of the prophet Eli to be deaf to Eli’s words of warning so that they did not repent of their sin and turn back to God (1 Samuel. 2:22-25).

For  us it is most important, not to follow human doctrines and as such pleasing man, but following the teachings of Jesus Christ continuing in God’s truth, continuously willing to seek truth and to endure sound doctrine, which is provided in the Holy Scriptures.

Sound doctrine

We do believe God will guide us by His Word and by the teachers he allows us to find, who will encourage us in sound doctrine and not in a teaching according our own, or the majority of man’s own desires, even when they claim to be the majority and therefore being the right ones. It is  not because they belong to the most numerous denomination in Christendom, which are the Roman Catholics, that all others are the wrong ones, not keeping to the main rules and being sects.

We are convinced that anyone, including believers, pastors, church leaders and Bible scholars, can be deluded in some area of their understanding, if they are not always “lovers of the truth,” if they are not always open to criticism, to other perspectives and scholarship which may give new insights and even improve our Bible translations, which in turn may lead to the need to discard some of our pet doctrines or practices.

In fact, we can see a God-sent delusion that has infected much of the Christian Church for many of the last 1900 years in a number of very significant areas of faith and practice! We may wonder if  the traditional Christian Church may not be blind to significant portions of God’s clear truth. for sure we can see lots of Christians who refuse to try to read the Bible without their known doctrine of the Trinity. Are they afraid that in case they would try to leave that doctrine away for a moment, they would loose track?

Why is it that sincere and earnest pastors seem happy to rest in their beliefs that were perhaps ingrained from Bible college or from their time in the pews? Why do so many pastors seem unwilling to read widely, to read honest critiques from Bible scholars, to read the criticisms of their opponents, to be challenged by and confront the beliefs of such ideologies as Catholicism, replacement theology, prosperity religion, materialism, paganism, and Islam, etc?

Insecurity, fear opposite confidence

Is it not best to wonder why people are afraid to put their Trinity doctrine for a moment at the site to read what is really written there black on white in the Book of books. Are they so insecure or fearful to do the test of sound reasoning? Or is it a form of  cowardice or fear or insecurity that prevents many from being earnest and zealous seekers after truth?

Yet are we not all cowards by nature? Are we not all fearful of standing against the tide of this world — standing against the crowd when they practice evil?

When Paul was in prison he was encouraged that many of his fellow believers gained confidence in their stand for the truth of the Gospel.

“Most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (Philipeans 1:14).

Each of us has different opportunities to play our part in the teaching of truth. The Church exists mainly to teach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and we take to heart Jesus’ warning that we must never be ashamed of him and his Gospel (Mark 8:38).
It is each of us individually and not our pastor or church leader who will stand before the Messiah, the righteous Judge, and have our heart searched on these matters.

Which leader to follow

Christadelphians do not have one specific worldly leader or organisation which we all have to follow. We do not have to be obedient to an overall organisation or church institution. By us no specific gifts or tenths (teeting) obligated. So how can it be certain people accuse us of being a sect, where this are all elements particular to sects.

Jesus in the Gospels

Jesus in the Gospels (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Christadelphians do not follow someone here on earth, but do follow Jesus Christ, who, according to the Holy Scriptures is now seated at the right hand of his heavenly Father to be a mediator between God and man.

We do believe each individual is himself or herself responsible and shall have to be answerable before the judge Jesus Christ on his return, which he even did not know when it would be, though God knows everything.

It is therefore you and I who need to be sure regarding where we stand before God for our own peace of mind and salvation. We ourselves have to make our own choice who to follow, Jesus or those who claim to be the traditional church.

Task to help others

But we also have received the task to help others and to “Rescue those being led away to death” (Proverbs 24:10-12) Therefore we may encounter lots of discouragement but we must continue and may not falter in times of trouble. We should not fear man but more fear God and count on the strength He is willing to give us.

I think perhaps in this issue of God we have to be careful to pay close attention to the unitarian statements of Jesus.

“You, Father, are the only one who is truly God” (17:3).

Is that statement unacceptable?
Does it not obviously tell us that no one else is the true God?

Jesus also tells us that he is the Way to God and we should follow him so that he can lead us through the small gate of the Kingdom of God.

Clearly Jesus being the Way to God and to life, we should focus on him, not as being the God, but as being the Way to God and being part of the Plan of God.

Once we say that Jesus is God we are counting two Gods — and that contradicts the Shema which Jesus says is the most important commandment (Mark 12:29).

Jesus learned everything from God as he grew up in wisdom and stature. If he were God he would have nothing to learn! God also tells us that He does not tell lies, is an eternal Spirit Who cannot seen by man or they would fall death, and that he cannot be tempted. Jesus was seen by many who did not fall death. Jesus also was tempted more than once. God Who knows everything and does not tell lies would not have told the truth when He is Jesus, and was been asked when he would come back and who would be seated next to him. Jesus told his disciples he did not know that and that only his Father knows that. God obviously cannot die. Jesus did die. The Son of God died. This is one of the special elements of our faith or a core element of the Christian faith.

All those facets we should tell others and help them to see what is written in the Bible about Jesus and the Plan of God.

Having no opportunity to explain this and to go deeper into detail, we were confronted with that censorship and saw the necessity to explain this more to the general public.

Therefore we started looking for an other means to show how Christadelphians next to the Word of God put their focus on that Nazarene man Jesus Christ, who we believe to be our saviour and example to follow.

Spokesmen for Jesus

Looking on the internet for means to help others to come to see who Jesus really is and what is really written in the Bible, we tried out some blogging systems.

As such we created:

C4A: Christ for all a site to show the reasons why to love Jesus.

C4U:Christ for you and Christadelphians for you, an other site to site of Brothers and Sisters in Christ, who love the Creator and His creations, to show which way we do have to go and whom to follow.

Both do have some negative points and made us not satisfied. Therefore we went back to a well known source. Once more we decided to go for WordPress and created last but not least the site with the focus all on Jesus Christ our Messiah, a “Messiah for all“.

We invite you to come and have a look at those site and to give your impression, so that we can work on it and improve.

We do hope we can show the world why we need to follow Jesus Christ of Nazareth and how Christadelphians do that, and as such should also been seen as true followers of Christ or real Christians and not as a sect or cult because they do not follow any human worldly leader nor institution of this world.

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Please do find additional to read:

  1. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
  2. Background to look at things
  3. Synagogue, Church or Ecclesia for the Christian
  4. Intentions of an Ecclesia
  5. United people under Christ
  6. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
  7. A participation in the body of Christ
  8. Who are the Christadelphians
  9. Christadelphian people
  10. Our Christadelphian faith
  11. What Christadelphians believe
  12. Our Creed and Practice
  13. About Brothers in Christ
  14. What are Brothers in Christ
  15. Often asked questions: faq – English
  16. What Christadelphians teach
  17. Those who call the Christadelphians a cult
  18. A small company of Jesus’ footstep follower
  19. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
  20. Those who love Jesus
  21. The Law of Christ: Law of Love
  22. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
  23. Agape, a love to share with others from the Fruit of the Spirit
  24. The task given to us to love each other
  25. Christianity is a love affair
  26. The Greatest of These is Love
  27. Unarmed truth and unconditional love
  28. Unconditional love
  29. Compassion and Discipline
  30. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships
  31. Integrity of the fellowship
  32. Fellowship
  33. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom

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  • Rule and Reign (activeinspiration.wordpress.com)
    As reported in the news these days we hear Christians are persecuted at all time highs. Maybe its because perfect love from God our Father that we share with the world is seen as weakness to the world of nonbelievers.
  • Stand Tall In Faith (mylordmyfriend.com)
    Jesus answered Peters confession, “That Jesus is the Christ, and the Son of The living God”Matthew 16 verse 16: Jesus declares that upon that Confession, the He is The Christ, He will build His Church.That is the concrete slab of faith, what Jesus came to do and what He did through the Cross. One of the statements of faith, that was established, by the forefathers, to counteract, heresies and mysticism which tried to wrongly attach themselves to the Truth, about Christ Jesus was.
  • Charles Spurgeon (rulookingforjesus.wordpress.com)
    It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without his Father’s permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father, that he might be the Saviour of men.
  • Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (emmanuelchatham.typepad.com)
    Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
  • Scripture of the Day, 2/5 (sowegalive.com)
    And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
  • Daily prayer (0: have a free day (0: (hmweimar.wordpress.com)
    Lord- thank you for always giving us a way to salvation and peace. Thank you for the grace you cover our lives with and thank you Lord God for your son. In his holy name amen
    Believe and make it so
  • Monday, 26 January 2015 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Timothy and St. Titus, Bishops (First Reading) (petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com)
    I invite you to fan into a flame the gift of God you received through the laying on of my hands. For God did not confer on us a spirit of bashfulness, but of strength, love and good judgment. Do not be ashamed of testifying to our Lord, nor of seeing me in chains. On the contrary, do your share in labouring for the Gospel with the strength of God.
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    From Paul, servant of God, Apostle of Christ Jesus, at the service of God’s chosen people, so that they may believe and reach the knowledge of truth and godliness. The eternal life we are waiting for was promised from the very beginning by God who never lies, and as the appointed time had come, He made it known through the message entrusted to me by a command of God, our Saviour.

God Our Refuge

God Our Refuge

Too often people are much more afraid of human beings instead of God. Too often they forget there is been provided a safe haven by the Most High Divine Creator. We should be aware that Adonai is not just a god, like Pharao, Moses and Jesus also are called gods, but that we should come by the way Jesus opened for us to the One and Only God of gods, Who made heaven and earth but also made us. And we are His, and as His people, the flock in His pasture (Psalms 100:3) we should find comfort in the knowledge that He is willing to Guide us and to Protect us. that we also shall come to understand that the lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. (Isaiah 2:11,17)

Only the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jesus and of Israel, is God in Israel, but should also be our God, wherever we may be in the world. Like Elijah, Jesus and many other prophets were His servant, and have done all these things at God His word, willing to do God His will and not theirs, we also should aim to do only God His Will and not our will nor the will of the world.

Though we always must be very careful not to rebel against Jehovah, neither fearing the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not. (Numbers 14:9)

Perhaps many are against us because we do believe in the Most High? But we should not worry, those against Jehovah, the God of our fathers, may seem to have it better than us, but this is all sham, they shall not prosper.
Let us trust the Most High Elohim, Hashem Jehovah.

Portion of column 19 of the Psalms Scroll (Teh...

Portion of column 19 of the Psalms Scroll (Tehilim) from Qumran Cave 11. The Tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebrew can be clearly seen six times in this portion. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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My horn of plenty is pressed down / One day, as promised, I’ll cast my crown / Before your throne in worship / Gathered there with all your churches
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  • Misplaced Hope (moretolifetoday.wordpress.com)
    if the brand doesn’t fulfil its promises, abandon it and try a different name.
  • The Unfailing Watch!!!!!! (levithetford.com)
    The Lord keeps His people as a rich man keeps his treasure, as a captain keeps a city with a garrison, as a sentry keeps watch over his sovereign. None can harm those who are in such keeping. Let me put my soul into His dear hands. He never forgets us, never ceases actively to care for us, never finds Himself unable to preserve us.
  • Word. (sparrowsingsweetly.wordpress.com)
    God’s written Word directs readers to delight in the incomparable brilliance of  His Living Word.
  • God Lifts Us Up (pureglory.net)
    When words of flesh put you down, the Words of Jehovah Lifts you Up! (Psalms 110:1,2) What people meant for your evil, Jehovah Sbaoth is making for your good! (Genesis 50:20) Jehovah is causing You to Rise Today…Selah
  • Inspiration. Shine in Gods Light (vjministries.wordpress.com)
    He shall be a light to His children. People who are not able to see thier future  walk in darkness without light.But you have the light who shall guide you and lead you like He lead Israel with the pillar of fire. No more darkness no more blind curves. He shall be your light forecasting you.

My Lord, My Friend

refuge

Psalm 46; was accorded to be written by the Sons of Korah.

In Numbers 16, tells us who Korah was, a man who died for his rebellion against Moses, and these were his descendants. One part of the family became temple gatekeepers and another the singers and the musicians in the temple. {read about the gatekeepers in 1 Chronicles 9 verse 19, and the singers and musicians in ! Chronicles 6.}.

In Psalm 46 the descendants of Korah  portray the worst calamities imaginable {v3 & 4}, earth trembles, mountains topple, raging water, mountain quake. Yet with all these things they use as calamities, they proclaim {11}. ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold’

The Sons of Korah’s song was about great calamities, but their faith in the God that created  them, is greater than anything they had gone through or could go through.

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Marriage of Jesus 7 Impaled

In the previous chapters I looked at the papyrus, which if authentic, suggests some people in ancient times believed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. Most historians agree that Jesus did in fact exist even may be the most famous man who ever lived, but surprisingly little is known about his life. The circumstances surrounding his life and death — and the supernatural occurrences linked to them — make it difficult to separate fact from legend.

English: Baptism of Christ

Baptism of the man born in Bethlehem, who came to live in Nazareth and was called the Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most historians believe Jesus was a real man of flesh and blood, who could be seen by many without them falling death, whilst the Scriptures tell us that God can not be seen by man or they would fall death. For many Christians it is very difficult to believe Jesus could be a human being. They prefer to see him as the God. Contrary to their belief that he is God they still want to put full human feelings in his character and would love to see him to be a married man, because at his age any ‘normal man’ would be married, according to their feelings.

Most Christians also do not want to accept Jesus Christ was a Jew and say he was a Christian, forgetting that his movement, first called the Way, was a Jewish sect, and later became an independent religion, called Christianity or Christendom.

The Jewish historian Josephus tells about the Nazarene Jeshua from Nazareth, today better known as Jesus, whom he also describes as a wise man, a teacher and healer in Galilee and Judea. Several sources mention Jesus’ crucifixion at the hands of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect. But we can not really find many writings where is been spoken of him having a special relation with some one, a woman or a man. Before 2012 no indication was found that Jesus would have had a wife.

Opgehangen aan een paal

Hanged on a tree. Christ Jesus impaled.

Throughout the ages several artefacts where so called found are attribute a special meaning. As such various physical relics, such as the crucifixion nails and crown of thorns Jesus wore on the ‘cross’, have decidedly less historical or scientific backing. The symbol of the + cross was already something which is not historically right, because the Romans did not yet use such way of bringing people to death. They used poles or wooden stakes, like the word ‘stake’ is originally in the gospel writings, but often now translated as ‘cross’. People at that time where impaled and would not be hung in such a way that their body weight would pull their hands from the T-crossing and bring the body down. Lots of Christians do think a person being crucified would be hanging a person on the 15° century presentation of a cross. In earlier translations we do find a more correct form ‘he was hanged’.

‘Look, we’re going up to JeruSalem where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the Chief Priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death.  (19)  Then they will hand him over to the ethnics, who will make fun of him, whip him, and impale him. But on the third day, he will be raised!’  (Matthew 20:18-19 2001)

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,  (19)  and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.” (Mat 20:18-19 VGNT)

“Nu we fareð to ierusalem. ænd mannes sune beoð ge-seald þare sacerda eldren & bokeren. & hyo ge-niðeriað hine to deaðe.  (19)  þeoden to bisemerienne. & to swingenne. & to ahonne. & þam þridde daige he arist.” (Matthew 20:18-19 WS1175)

“The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus whom you killed and hanged on a tree. ” (Acts of the apostles 5:30 WEL)
“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.” (Acts of the apostles 5:30 VGNT)
“The Elohim of our forefathers resurrected Jesus, who you killed and hanged on a tree.” (Act 5:30 UTV)
“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree.” (Act 5:30 KJ2000)

English: Jesus ahead of Pontius Pilate and Her...

Jesus ahead of Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipater (Dvakrat 52 Bibliszke historie, 1847)  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most scientific studies suggest that these relics originated long after Jesus died. Also a lot of stories, and mysteries got around and throughout the ages lots was written about that special man, who many would have loved to have killed again or to destroy for ever.

“If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they impale to themselves the Son of Elohim afresh, and put him to an open shame.” (Hebrews 6:6 WoY)

Many also wanted to give him a bad name and therefore send all fictitious stories into the world or doubted his sincerity, his purity and integrity. Several Christians therefore refuse to accept Jesus to be a real man. According to them not one man could stay pure and keep to the commandments of God. But in case nobody could keep to the commandments of God you could question such Laws which are impossible to keep. When they would have been made by a God who loves His creation that would be very strange, surely when He knows everything and should then know that nobody could fulfil His Will, and everybody would from the start be allegedly be condemned to death.

The Jew Saul (Paul) was very well aware of our position as human being and therefore after having come to understand the real position of Jeshua (Jesus Christ) he wrote several letters as further motivation for the readers to press on to a mature understanding of their Christian faith and  points out the seriousness of apostasy (e.g. letters to the Hebrews). It is of the greatest importance that the readers give heed to the message of the author and receive the “solid food” he is offering them. Unless the readers go forward, the author predicts, they will meet with disaster. But even today we do find lots of Christians who do not like to hear that message and want to keep to doctrines created by human beings.

Also today they are often carried away by human thinking and placing the character of Jesus in their own way of life, where it is normal that a man of a certain age would be married, so their God Yahweh and their god Jesus also should be married persons.

In the woman who was at the ‘cross’ (Mary Magdalene) they like to see the sinner, even a prostitute, who was been converted to ‘Christianity’ and had become the most precious person of their god, and therefore he had taken her to his wife on earth like he had a wife in heaven.

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Are you curious to get to know that wife in heaven also? Continue reading in: Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh opposite wife of Jesus

Preceding articles:

Marriage of Jesus 1 Mary, John, Judas, Thomas and Brown

Marriage of Jesus 2 Standard writings about Jesus

Marriage of Jesus 3 Listening women

Marriage of Jesus 4 Place of the woman

Marriage of Jesus 5 Papyrus fragment  in Egyptian Coptic

Marriage of Jesus 6 Jesus said to them “My wife”

To be followed by:

Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh

Marriage of Jesus 9 Reason for a new marriage

Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant

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Additional reading:

  1. On the Nature of Christ
  2. Preexistence in the Divine purpose and Trinity
  3. Christianity without the Trinity
  4. The Advent of the saviour to Roman oppression
  5. The day Jesus died
  6. Nazarene Commentary Luke 3:18-20 – John’s Teaching and Imprisonment
  7. Nazarene Commentary Luke 3:1, 2 – Factual Data
  8. Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition Matthew Chapter 27
  9. Hebraic Roots Bible Matthew Chapter 27
  10. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
  11. 14 Nisan a day to remember #5 The Day to celebrate
  12. Imprisonment and execution of Jesus Christ
  13. Death of Christ on the day of preparation
  14. Icons and crucifixes
  15. Swedish theologian finds historical proof Jesus did not die on a cross
  16. Not making a runner
  17. Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection
  18. Hellenistic influences
  19. Catholicism, Anabaptism and Crisis of Christianity
  20. Doctrine and Conduct Cause and Effect
  21. For those who have not the rudiments of an historical sense
  22. Called Christian
  23. Integrity of the fellowship

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Antonio Ciseri's depiction of Pontius Pilate p...

Antonio Ciseri’s depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Christ to the people Ecce homo! (Behold the man!). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Find also to read:

  1. The Implicit Thought Of Jesus In John 2:19 (Against Trinity)
    Jesus proved to be worthy of as a sacrifice since he died literally and he had placed his spirit unto his Father thus his spirit is not the one who made himself alive. It was through God’s will and God’s spirit that Jesus became alive.
  2. Some common misconceptions about the truth
    There is no writing in the Bible that speaks Jesus as God coequal with the Father. John 1:1 speaks of the Word who is a “god” and not as the God.
  3. The underlying truth in John 1:1
    An example verse in the Greek Scriptures (NT) where Paul is identified as “theon” (god) without article is below. Here, Paul is being considered as a god and not the God. Someone who has a quality of a god because the power of God is manifested through him by the miracles he had performed in the eyes of many people. You can check the interlinear link of Acts 28:6 here (http://www.interlinearbible.org/acts/28.htm) Paul is described as GOD (THEON) without article therefore it shows qualitative and that he may be a god also.  Thus, we can say that if the subject is defined by a noun then it has an important and necessary force of meaning within that noun. However, we can only get the right and exact interpretation of the word based on the context of the whole sentence. We would not interpret the word that identifies the subject as it would contradict the other phrases. Thus, in getting the meaning of the word that identifies the subject, we have options on how to deal with the grammar structure of the whole sentence.
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    the head of Christ is God and that he is going to give his kingdom to his Father after he defeated all his enemies and he will subject himself to God – 1 Corinthians 11:3; 15:27 – 28) These shows that they are not equal (Jesus ≠ Jehovah). Other translations use “The Word is God” to say that he is the God himself or equivalent to Jehovah but in John 1:1b and verse 2 it does shows that they are not equal but distinct who are both present at the same time. One thing would fail in the nature of Jesus with Jehovah is Jesus was created and has beginning while the God Almighty has no beginning and no ending or cannot die. – Proverbs 8:22-31 (Jesus is called the master worker or the craftsman); Colossians 1:15, John 1:14, 18; Habakkuk 1:12; Psalms 90:2
  4. The Jesus god of Christendom
    Of all the gods in the world the most popular of them all is the “Jesus” god of Christendom.
    The vast army of two billion almost-Christians happily proclaim that their Jesus is “God, the son”, a happy god who loves everyone. Many of the Jesus-worshipers believe that they are “saved” merely by knowing and accepting Jesus as their god.
    +
    “Yahshua never heard the name Jesus. That was a name given to him by the early church many years after His crucifixion, they wanted to remove any Jewishness from the new church. They eliminated His Jewish name (Joshua / Jehoshua) and blended the name of “Zeus” into the Christian church to make it comfortable for all those who previously worshipped
    the Greek and Roman gods – to become Christians.
    Since Zeus was the top god of their experience, attaching the name Ioesus to Yahshua (Yehoshua) gave Him top priority in the worship hierarchy.”
    -Believer or Follower?
    The Sound of the Shofar
    By Jon Thompson
    +
    “The name that American Christians use for the Messiah is Jesus. This is a derivation of Iesus which is literally translated from Greek as ‘Hail, Zeus’. Using “SUS” at the end of the word is related to Zeus. When Constantine proclaimed Christianity as the state religion of Rome on his deathbed in 300 AD, he changed the names of the Roman gods to become names of Catholic deity and saints. It merged paganism with Christianity and distorted the Gospel message. Christ’s real name in english would
    be “Joshua” (or Jehoshua) – the Messiah.”
    – Vision Outreach Ministries
    KB Gunn & Anamcari
    “”Je-Sus”; “Je” (Ie) in Greek meaning “hail” and “Sus” (Zeus) meaning hail Zeus. The Greeks used the ending –sus in naming many of their towns to give homage to their main deity Zeus. Thus, by following modern traditions, we may actually be praising a Pagan God.”
    – The Name of the Messiah
    Torah Ministries
  5. Who Is Jesus Christ?
    Unlike us, Jesus was perfect. So he did not need to die for his sins—he never committed any. Instead, Jesus died for the sins of others. God expressed extraordinary love for mankind by sending his Son to die for us. Jesus also showed love for us by obeying his Father and giving his life for our sins.—Read John 3:16; Romans 5:18, 19.
  6. Who is Jesus?
    God’s son was born of Jewish parents who did not know the Greek langauge.
    +
    Jesus. That was a name given to him many years after His death. Rome wanted to remove any Jewishness from the new church. They eliminated His Jewish name and blended the name of Zeus in order to make it comfortable for all those who had previously worshipped the Greek and Roman gods. Since Zeus was the top god of their experience, attaching the name Ioesus (hail Zeus) to Yahshua – gave Him top priority in the worship hierarchy.
    +
    “It is known that the Greek name endings with sus, seus, and sous were attached by the Greeks to names and geographical areas as means to give honour to their supreme deity, Zeus.”
    -Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend
    Professor J. C. J. Metford
    +
    “The Hebrews called their coming Savior, the Messiah, Jahshuawah (Jehoshua). The disciples of the Savior accepted Him as such, and to them He was known as Jahshuwah the Messiah. The Greeks, however, rejected the Hebrew name, and called Him (IESOUS-Jesus) instead.”
    – The Origin of Christianity by A.B. Traina
  7. Christ never heard himself called Jesus
    No one ever called Christ by the name of “Jesus” during his earthly life.  As a Hebrew, he was referred to as “Yehoshua” by his 12 Jewish disciples.   But Rome would not have anything to do with it.  After the apostles left the earthly scene, Rome adopted the religion of Christ and made sharp changes, not only to Christ’s teachings, but even to his name.  Constantine and the entire Roman Church Counsels – altered and changed Christ’s name into something more Greek than Jewish; and they even burned books that contained Christ’s original true name.   All of these changes were in the interest of the large pagan population in Greece and Rome at that time.
    +
    “In 1415, The Church Of Rome Took An Extraordinary Step To destroy all knowledge of two Second Century Jewish books that it said contained ‘the true name of Christ.’
    -What Was The Church Trying to Hide?
    by Tony Bushby
    “The plan of the Greeks was simple, they merely dropped the Hebrew terminology of names which referred to the Hebrew deity, and substituted the name, or letters, referring to the name of the supreme deity, Zeus.”
    -The Faith Magazine
    Volume 69
  8. Will Gods-people be stumbled by the name of Jehoshua
    The Messiah has been called “Jesus” ever since the Roman’s took over Christianity as a state religion. That’s a long time.  So much has been said and done in the name of “Jesus”, that to call him anything but that – will appear as sacrilege in the eyes of many.
    But that doesn’t change the fact that “Jesus” never was his name.  Christ was never called by that name while he was alive on this earth.  His Jewish Apostles never called him that, and the earliest of Christians never called him that.  It was only the Greek-speaking apostates, who changed his name to suit their pagan appetites for a god-man with 3 heads to suit their trinity tradition of pagan worship.  And along with all these changes, was a complete destruction of Christ’s Jewish heritage and his Jewish name – which translates directly into English as did his Father’s name.
    Since Jehovah’s Salvation – called “Jehoshua” is what Christ wants to be called, we should take his request very seriously.  It is not a matter of holding onto tradition, or a matter of pleasing those who find the erroneous name “Jesus” to be so dear to their heart.  No, it is a matter of “Truth”.
    Jehoshua came to the earth to bring mankind back to truth.  NOT to be molded into a god that mankind thinks he should be.  Jehoshua was sent by Jehovah God, to bring mankind back to him.  Christ had an objective of turning the Israel of God back to
    truth again.
  9. “Jehovah” and “Jehoshua”
    “…in the name of (Jehoshua) Christ the Naz·a·rene´,  whom YOU impaled but whom God raised up from the dead, there is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved.”  – (Acts 4:10,12)
    +
    “the construction of theophoric names, starting with the letters “Jeho” is evidence that God’s name is actually ‘Jehovah’
    (and that Christ’s name is actually Jehoshua)”
    – Smith’s 1863
    “A Dictionary of the Bible”
    Section 2.1
  10. Christ did not get paid for his preaching work
    Christ was a carpenter.  Many of his followers were woodworkers, tent-makers (Paul), fishermen (Peter), common laborers, animal herders, a doctor (Luke), and workers in the field, etc.
    +
    Christ and his apostles, miraculously healed the sick and raised the dead.  Christ preached fabulous sermons and discourses that lasted for many hours, where people came from far away to listen to him and to be benefited by his miracle healing.
    +
    Christ did not candy coat anything.  He was not trying to win Converts to make money.  He was not selling himself or his teachings as a means to make income. In fact, he told all of his followers that they should never charge money for their services.  They received the knowledge of the truth for free and they were supposed to share that knowledge with others at no cost Whatsoever.

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  • Crucifixion from ancient Rome to modern Syria (bbc.co.uk)
    Disturbing photographs recently emerged from Syria showing the bodies of two executed men hanging on crosses. Why has a punishment used in ancient Rome now emerged as a feature of Syria’s civil war?
    +

    Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan, Islamic scholar and senior researcher in Islamic Studies at the Quilliam Foundation in London, says this form of punishment arises from a very literal, or fundamentalist, reading of the Koran.

    Verse 33 of the fifth book of the Koran says: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.”

  • Nothing Here, But the Blood (brokenbelievers.com)
    The Jewish people no longer sacrifice lambs, and the Gentiles have never caught on anyway. But sin has never gone out-of-style. Perhaps this is a result of the New Testament teaching that Jesus offered His blood as the payment of every sin committed. His death wiped our slates clean, forever.
  • Easter Science: 6 Facts About Jesus (livescience.com)
    Most historians believe Jesus was a real man. To test the veracity of biblical claims, historians typically compare Christian accounts of Jesus’ life with historical ones recorded by Romans and Jews, most notably the historians Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus.
    +
    Most historians fully accept one of Josephus’ references to Jesus and while most believe that parts of the other reference are interpolated by later Christian writers, many if not most historians believe that there is a core that acknowledged Jesus. And no, the Tacitus account is not “widely” thought to be forged – thought so perhaps by anti-Christian ideologues, but not historians. The similarities to other religions are often wildly exaggerated. The vast majority of the “Jesus as myth” crowd are not historians, have little if any relevant expertise, and are basically a movement of anti-Christian zealots. And your point about the Shroud of Turin is silly. As if there is some typical way miracles occur (if that was a miracle). As if an omnipotent being intended to create an impression of Jesus on a shroud, looked at it, and then exclaimed, “Oh no! It looks all spread out!”
  • Craig S. Keener: Jesus Existed (huffingtonpost.com)
    Contrary to some circles on the Internet, very few scholars doubt that Jesus existed, preached and led a movement. Scholars’ confidence has nothing to do with theology but much to do with historiographic common sense. What movement would make up a recent leader, executed by a Roman governor for treason, and then declare, “We’re his followers”? If they wanted to commit suicide, there were simpler ways to do it.One popular objection is that only Christians wrote anything about Jesus. This objection is neither entirely true nor does it reckon with the nature of ancient sources. It usually comes from people who have not worked much with ancient history. Only a small proportion of information from antiquity survives, yet it is often sufficient.
    +
    valuable as examining such historical evidence is, we must return to where we started. Logically, why would Jesus’ followers make up a Jesus to live and die for? Why not glorify real founders (as movements normally did)? Why make up a leader and have him executed on a Roman cross? To follow one executed for treason was itself treason. To follow a crucified leader was to court persecution. Some people do give their lives for their beliefs, but for beliefs, not normally for what they know to be fabricated. Jesus’ first movement would not have made up his execution or his existence. How much they actually remembered about him is a subject for a future post.
  • Lost Tomb of Jesus (eyeoncitrus.com)
    During the last two centuries, fewer and fewer people born into the Christian faith have accepted the four Gospels as the last word on the birth, life and death of Jesus. Ever since the French Enlightenment, a growing number of scholars have begun to look at the New Testament “critically,” trying to unravel the history of the people who wrote it and who appear in its pages.
  • I am fascinated by Jesus (blogs.timesofisrael.com)
    No, not by the central figure of Christianity. I am interested in the Jewish rebel leader who stars in Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan.
    +
    As a Jew living in the modern State of Israel, I am putting my beliefs and faith aside and openly stating that I am interested in the historical figure that lived in this land two thousand years ago. There are two hard facts about Jesus of Nazareth. First of all, Jesus was a Jew who led a popular Jewish movement at a very tumultuous time. The second fact is that Rome crucified Jesus for doing so.These two facts set the stage for the meticulously researched biography by Reza Aslan, published just last month. Entitled Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, this book challenges many long-held assumptions about the man whose life and teachings form the foundations of Christianity. Aslan is not the first author to consider the case of the historical Jesus, but his jargon-free, unprejudiced, reader-friendly presentation of both Scripture and history will ensure that his message will reach a large lay audience.
  • Did Jesus exist (maasaiboys.wordpress.com)
    I don’t understand this inspiration business. Since the gospel authors do not claim to be witnesses for example Luke 1: 1-4 , how do they claim to know what Jesus thought in some occasions when he was in private?
  • Pope, Netanyahu spar over Jesus’ native language (trust.org)
    Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded words on Monday over the language spoken by Jesus two millennia ago.”Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew,” Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity.

    “Aramaic,” the pope interjected.

    “He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew,” Netanyahu shot back.

  • Relentless Reliance on Repentance (innercitychurch.wordpress.com)
    The Gospel can be (possibly) summed up by four questions;
    Where do we come from? The answer to this questions is God. God creates us, God loves us, and God moulded human kind in His image. This is essential to understanding the other points – from love, God created people.
  • In the article Islam Is a Profoundly Political Religion With Uniquely Prominent Incivil Qualities (venitism.blogspot.com) it is clearly shown that many so called Christians do not understand that Muslims do have a problem not because of them being Christian, but because them adhering three gods. The majority of Muslims do not have any problem with real Christians who believe in only One God and who take Jesus to be Jesus a real son of man
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3 Reasons the Resurrection Matters

The resurrection of Jesus (alongside his crucifixion) is by the majority of Christians the central historical event in the Christian faith. You could say that

Without the resurrection there would be no Christianity.

The Jewish fighter against the first followers of Christ, after some time changed  his mind and wrote to the Corinthian community:

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection)

The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lots of people came to the faith because of the tremendous stories they heard and because they came to believe that resurrection of Christ Jesus was not a joke or a fairy tale. Many do not stand still what importance such an act of coming of the dead, by a man really means. Those trinitarian (believing in a three godhead) Christians who take Jesus to be God nullify his death, because the God of gods can not die, and make a farce of this man, who only wanted to follow the will of his Father and not of himself.

“41 And he was parted from them about a stone’s cast; and he kneeled down and prayed, 42 saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:41-42 ASV)

We should understand that Jesus did not pray to himself, but to a much Higher Being, to Whom he would go later.

“28 and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who hath given [them] unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29 ASV)

“Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28 ASV)

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.” (John 14:12 ASV)

“Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods; yea, in the thing wherein they dealt proudly against them.” (Exodus 18:11 ASV)

Several Christians say they  believe in the resurrection and are convinced that after dying a violent death on a Roman cross on a Friday afternoon in 30 A.D., Jesus of Nazareth came back to life and emerged from the tomb on Sunday morning. Those days are not correct, but are not the subject of what we want to bring forward today.

Jesus, as a devote Jew celebrated the Passover or the liberation of God’s People. On the 14th of Nisan, the first month of the Judaic year, he with his closest friends installed a New Covenant, between his Father and those who wanted to come close to God . The Jews had got their opportunity to be the most praised people of God, but now others could also come into the House of God, thanks to what Jesus accomplished.

He was a man of flesh and blood who could be tempted. His heavenly Father is a Spirit and has no flesh, blood or bones. God also can not be tempted and can not sin. Jesus himself never had claimed to be God and always had spoken with respect of his Father in heaven, without Him he could do nothing. Him always referring to his Father made the Pharisees willing to get rid of him.

“17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. 18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.” (John 5:17-19 ASV)

“21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. 22 Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24 ASV)

That he was not a spirit he would proof to his disciples after he was taken our of the dead, after having resided for three days in hell. (In case many Christians could count well, they would not take Good Friday as a day Jesus died and Sunday being the day he stood up from the dead, because than he would not have been three days death.)

Lamentation at the Tomb, 15th century.

Lamentation at the Tomb, 15th century. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We may already be happy those Christians say Jesus was put unto death, put in a grave (sheol = the hell) and was resurrected. They should come to see it was not Jesus who came from himself out of the grave, but that it was his Father Whom took him from the dead. This is important, because when Jesus is a man of flesh and blood, who can get up from being death, this makes it also possible for us. In case Jesus is God that does not proof anything for a humble human being, who can sin and probably did more than one sin in his or her life. When we know how severely God punished the first human beings and did not make an end straight ahead to this distorted situation and broken relation, we should wonder what the use would be in case God Himself would come to earth to play a man and to do as if He could be tempted and as if He could die. You might wonder why such a charade would have any use and why God than waited such a long time to come to this earth to play the role of Messiah.

From historical writing we got to know what happened in the past with the people who claim to be God His People. We also got to know about the Nazarene Jew Jeshua who did many miracles and who claimed to be the son of God, but never said he himself was God.

His resurrection is not easy to believe. But if it is true, it is the most pivotal event in human history. Much has been written in defense of Jesus’ resurrection, according to Brian G. Hedges, Lead Pastor for Fulkerson Park Baptist Church and the author of Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin, and Active Spirituality: Grace and Effort in the Christian Life, the most thorough and convincing book being N. T. Wright’s massive 800-page volume, The Resurrection of the Son of God. (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Volume 3) (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2003)

What is unquestionable is that the first generation of Jesus’ followers did believe he had risen, and were convinced that everything had changed as a result.

Consider just three of the ways the New Testament highlights the significance of the resurrection.

1. Jesus’ resurrection means that his sacrificial death on the cross was sufficient, and therefore our sins can be forgiven.

Paul emphasizes this in 1 Corinthians 15, reminding us that

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (vv. 3-4).

Then, in verse 17, he argues that

“if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

In other words, Paul saw a direct connection between the resurrection of Jesus and the sufficiency of his death to atone for our sins. When Jesus rose again on the third day, it was the public announcement that God was fully satisfied with the sacrificial death of his son Jeshua.  In his resurrection, Jesus was vindicated (1 Timothy 3:16).  But in his vindication, we are vindicated too. That’s why Paul says in Romans 4 that Jesus

“was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

2. Jesus’ resurrection means that death is defeated once and for all.

As Peter proclaimed on the Day of Pentecost,

“God raised [Jesus] from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24).

The distinctive English image, with Christ ste...

The distinctive English image, with Christ stepping on a soldier, in a 14th century Nottingham alabaster relief (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are told that ‘Death‘ lost its grip on Jesus! Death could never have had a grip on God. But every man, though being created in the image of God, would, because of the sin of the first man, be in submission to death.

When Jesus was a man of flesh and blood and not a spirit, like his Father, this all makes sense. By the Father taking His son out of death and even by taking him to sit on his right site, to become a mediator between God and man, we have the assurance Jesus can mean something to us. He is not only our solicitor or privileged intercessor by the Most High, he is also an example to what can happen also to us.

The resurrection means that Jesus not only defeated death for himself, but that he defeated it for us. He died and rose as a new representative for humanity, as the Second Adam.

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,”

writes Paul,

“the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

It is in that way that Jesus his disciple John looks at the genesis of the New World of Christ, where Jesus is that begin for all of us, the alpha, but also the end, the omega.

After the default Adam, we have a remake Adam to which we can refer; In him we find a new harddisk to start anew, fresh under his guidance, with his software.

His resurrection guarantees ours.

Perhaps no one has said this more eloquently than C. S. Lewis. In his 1947 book Miracles, Lewis wrote:

“The New Testament writers speak as if Christ’s achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the ‘first fruits,’ the ‘pioneer of life.’ He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. This is the beginning of the New Creation: a new chapter in cosmic history has been opened.”

The empty tomb assures us that sickness and suffering, death and disease will not have the final word.

This should be both personal and powerfully hope giving to all of us.

3. Jesus’ resurrection means that the material world matters.

Lest there be any misunderstanding, when the apostles said that Jesus rose again, they meant that his physical body came back to life. The risen Jesus wasn’t a phantom or ghost, but a breakfast-eating, flesh-and-bone, human being (see Luke 24:36-43 and John 21:10-14).

As the Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist John Updike once said,

Make no mistake: if He rose at all

it was as His body;

if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules

reknit, the amino acids rekindle,

the Church will fall.

When Jesus’ came out of the tomb in a physical body, it was God’s definitive stamp of approval on the creation project with all of its materiality. The resurrection shows us that matter matters. And this is why the early Christians looked to the future with confidence that the created order itself would be redeemed (see Romans 8:18-25).

Though we wait for the full consummation of new creation, the Scriptures also teach that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is already working within us (Ephesians 1:19-20). The resurrection, you see, not only assures of God’s forgiveness and comforts us in suffering as we anticipate the final reversal of death, disease, and decay; it also motivates and empowers us to push back the tide of suffering and evil in the present world, through word and deed, in mercy and in justice, all in Jesus’ name.

(Having taken in mind words from Brian G. Hedges,Lead Pastor for Fulkerson Park Baptist Church and the author of Christ Formed in You: The Power of the Gospel for Personal Change, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin, and Active Spirituality: Grace and Effort in the Christian Life. Brian and his wife Holly have four children and live in South Bend, Indiana. Brian also blogs at www.brianghedges.comand you can follow him on Twitter @brianghedges.)

End Notes


N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Volume 3) (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2003).

The Greek word for “justification” (dikaiosin) in Romans 4:25  is closely related to the word “vindicated” (edikaiothe) in 1 Timothy 3:16.

C. S. Lewis, Miracles (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1947) 236–237.

John Updike, “Seven Stanzas of Easter,” in Telephone Poles and Other Poems (Random House, 2013).

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Preceding articles:

Entrance of a king to question our position #1 Coming in the Name of the Lord

Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be

Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God

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Additional reading:

  1. The meek one riding on an ass
  2. The son of David and the first day of the feast of unleavened bread
  3. About a man who changed history of humankind
  4. Lord or Yahuwah, Yeshua or Yahushua
  5. Who was Jesus?
  6. On the Nature of Christ
  7. Jesus begotten Son of God #18 Believing in inhuman or human person
  8. Jesus is the Son of God but Not God the Son
  9. Yeshua a man with a special personality
  10. A man with an outstanding personality
  11. An unblemished and spotless lamb foreknown
  12. No Other Name (But Jesus)
  13. Servant of his Father
  14. Servant for the truth of God
  15. Slave for people and God
  16. Jesus spitting image of his father
  17. Reasons that Jesus was not God
  18. Jesus and his God
  19. The high calling of God in Christ Jesus
  20. Jesus Messiah
  21. Christ begotten through the power of the Holy Spirit
  22. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
  23. For the Will of Him who is greater than Jesus
  24. Wishing to do the will of God
  25. Imprisonment and execution of Jesus Christ
  26. A Messiah to die
  27. Jesus memorial
  28. No person has greater love than this one who surrendered his soul in behalf of his friends
  29. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus
  30. The day Jesus died
  31. An unblemished and spotless lamb foreknown
  32. The Song of The Lamb #5 Revelation 5
  33. Why do we need a ransom?
  34. Ransom for all
  35. A new exodus and offering of a Lamb
  36. 14 Nisan a day to remember #1 Inception
  37. 14 Nisan a day to remember #2 Time of Jesus
  38. 14 Nisan a day to remember #3 Before the Passover-feast
  39. 14 Nisan a day to remember #4 A Lamb slain
  40. 14 Nisan a day to remember #5 The Day to celebrate
  41. 14-15 Nisan and Easter
  42. Around the feast of Unleavened Bread
  43. A Holy week in remembrance of the Blood of life
  44. High Holidays not only for Israel
  45. Festival of Freedom and persecutions
  46. Death of Christ on the day of preparation
  47. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?
  48. Swedish theologian finds historical proof Jesus did not die on a cross
  49. Impaled until death overtook him
  50. Jesus three days in hell
  51. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead
  52. Through Christ’s death you can be adopted as a child of God
  53. Jesus is risen
  54. In the death of Christ, the son of God, is glorification
  55. Jesus begotten Son of God #11 Existence and Genesis Raising up
  56. Seeing Jesus
  57. Faith a commitment to the promises of Christ and to to the demands of Christ
  58. Jesus begotten Son of God #6 Anointed Son of God, Adam and Abraham
  59. Jesus begotten Son of God #19 Compromising fact
  60. One Mediator between God and man
  61. Ember and light the ransomed of Jehovah
  62. A fact of History or just a fancy Story
  63. The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
  64. Only one God
  65. God of gods
  66. God is One
  67. The Trinity – true or false?
  68. The Trinity – the Truth
  69. True Hope
  70. Epitome of the one faith
  71. Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition Matthew Chapter 27
  72. Hebraic Roots Bible Matthew Chapter 28
  73. Hebraic Roots Bible Book of The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2

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Related articles:

  1. Pre-Good Friday Rememberances
  2. The Festival Sabbaths and Preparation day
  3. Preparation day of Passover
  4. Weekly Torah Portion: Pesach (Passover) Week 1
  5. Passover, A seven-day festival
  6. The Passover Lamb
  7. Our Passover Lamb
  8. The Lamb of God
  9. He Says Concerning Himself “I am the Son of Elohim”
  10. Preparations for the Passover Meal – Luke 22: 7-13
  11. Passover and the Feast of First Fruits
  12. Passover Confusion?
  13. Jesus Christ, Our Passover
  14. Happy Passover!
  15. Passover and Good Friday are just hours away! – A Message from Bibles for Israel
  16. The Week With Two Sabbaths
  17. The Crucifixion Week
  18. Faith Without Obidience
  19. Easter Reflections: Betrayal, Trials, Denial, and Remorse
  20. Dave Hunt : Scripture reveals the answer Of .Crucifixion Week
  21. Tree of Jesus Life, the Suffering Christ, Passion Week
  22. Gospel according to Saint John – Chapter 19
  23. 10 proofs passover is a memorial
  24. Proof Jesus Died Just Before the Passover Feast in 33 AD
  25. The Day of Crucifixion and time of resurrection
  26. Easter
  27. The Empty Tomb
  28. The Passover Lamb has Gone Missing
  29. He is not here, He is risen, just as He said
  30. Happy Easter, He Is Risen!
  31. He Is Risen! – Matthew 28: 1-20
  32. He’s Risen! (Easter Sunday Reflections)
  33. Resurrection Sunday
  34. Easter scripture for today
  35. He Is Alive..
  36. Walk with Jesus: Matthew 27 He who overcame
  37. The Evolution of the Resurrection
  38. Oh Foolish People
  39. How long was Jesus in the grave?
  40. Solving the Three Day Three Night Mystery
  41. Yet Another Three Day Three Night Question
  42. Three Days Three Nights Follow Up

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  • Can you question the Resurrection and still be a Christian? (religionnews.com)
    Did Jesus literally rise from the dead in a bodily resurrection, as many traditionalist and conservative Christians believe? Or was his rising a symbolic one, a restoration of his spirit of love and compassion to the world, as members of some more liberal brands of Christianity hold?As Easter approaches, many Christians struggle with how to understand the Resurrection. How literally must one take the Gospel story of Jesus’ triumph to be called a Christian? Can one understand the Resurrection as a metaphor — perhaps not even believe it happened at all — and still claim to be a follower of Christ?
  • Resurrection – for ME? (aworldontheedge.com)
    Resurrection is defined in the dictionary as the act of causing something that had ended or been forgotten or lost to exist again, to be used again, etc.We come into this world innocent, and nothing can change that we’re made in the image and likeness of God. Part of each one of us is spiritual, like it or not. And it is that spirituality that draws us to God.
  • The Resurrection is Believable (burrissblog.wordpress.com)
    Opponents of Christianity and skeptical minds have always questioned the resurrection, just as they question many other teachings of Christianity. Such skeptics are more common in contemporary America, but they have always been around. What is surprising is that more and more Christians are stating their skepticism about the resurrection.
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    1. Something dramatic happened that changed the disciples from a hiding, defeated group to a group willing to die for their faith in Jesus. They were devastated when Jesus was killed. Did they just decide to reinterpret His death or did they see Him alive again?2. If Jesus’ dead body was in a tomb near Jerusalem, why didn’t His opponents simply bring out the dead body when His disciples started preaching that He was alive?
  • The Significance of the Resurrection (spyghana.com)
    The embalmed remains of Lenin lie in a crystal casket in a tomb in Red Square in Moscow. On the casket it says: “He was the greatest leader of all peoples, of all countries, of all times. He was the [savior] of the world!”All is in the past tense for Lenin. How forward-looking, by contrast, are the triumphant words of Christ: “I am He that [lives] . . . I am alive forevermore.”
    +
    What judge would listen to you in a court of law, if you said that while you were asleep your neighbor came into your house and stole your TV set? Who knows what goes on when he/she is asleep? A testimony like this would be ridiculed in a court of law. Besides, the guards would have lost their heads if they told the Roman governor, Pilate that they were asleep at their post and the disciples came and stole the body. Furthermore, we are faced with a psychological and ethical impossibility. Stealing the body of Jesus was something totally foreign to the disciples and all that we know of them. It would mean that they were perpetrators of a deliberate lie, which was responsible for the deception and the ultimate death of thousands of people.Each of the disciples faced the test of possible torture and martyrdom for his statements and beliefs. People will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie. If anything is clear from the Gospels and the Book of Acts, it is that the apostles were sincere. They may have been deceived, if you like, but they were not deceivers. Hypocrites and martyrs are not made of the same stuff.
  • The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ Is The Greatest Single Event In Human History (fggam.org)
    Do you realize that Jesus never corrected, withdrew, or amended any statement He ever made? I wish I could say that! Jesus Christ never apologized for anything He ever did or said. Jesus Christ never sought advice from anyone, never had to ask for forgiveness. Jesus Christ doesn’t have any strong points. For Him to have strong points, He would have to have weak points.
  • Three Implications of the Empty Tomb (mainthings.wordpress.com)
    Paul says, if the King is risen and if the King is enthroned than nothing done for Him is meaningless. It is His triumph and not our fruitfulness that determines these realities.
  • Because of Easter, We Are Overcomers (chronicillnesspaindevotionals.wordpress.com)
    As I think about the power that God exerted to raise Christ from the dead, my human mind can’t fully comprehend what that entailed. But I do know that no other power is so great, and as a Christian, that power now lives in me.
  • The Resurrection of Jesus is not optional (gracedigest.com)
    Notice that there are three key parts to the gospel Paul preached. 1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 2. He was buried. 3. He as was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. This is important! If you take away the resurrection component you have nothing! Try sitting on a stool with two legs! Just so, a gospel without the resurrection of Jesus is no gospel (good news) at all! Paul went to great lengths to assure his readers that indeed Christ did rise from death.
  • Is Jesus’ Resurrection the Best Explanation of the Evidence? (jkw00d.wordpress.com)
    1. Historical claims are strong when supported by multiple, independent sources.
    2. Historical claims which are also attested to by enemies are more likely to be authentic since enemies are unsympathetic, and often hostile, witnesses.
    3. Historical claims which include embarrassing admissions reflect honest reporting rather than creative storytelling.
    4. Historical claims are strong when supported by eyewitness testimony.
    5. Historical claims which are supported by early testimony are more reliable and less likely to be the result of legendary development.+
      Some skeptics argue that Jesus may have been crucified but He did not actually die. Instead, He lost consciousness (swooned) and merely appeared to be dead only to later be revived in the cool, damp tomb in which He was laid. After reviving He made His way out of the tomb and presented Himself to His disciples as the “resurrected” Messiah. Thus the Christian religion begins.
  • The Doctrine Without Which Holy Week Is Not Good News (derekzrishmawy.com)
    Unless I am united to Christ, all of his obedience to the covenant, or righteousness, is not mine–I am left to stand on my own false works before the judge of all the earth. Unless I am united with Christ, then his sin-bearing death is not mine, and I am left to give an account for all my wicked sins. Unless I am united with Christ, I am not part of the crop of which Christ is the first-fruits, and I can only reap the death that  sin leads to and have no life through the Spirit.

Wednesday Talk: Favorite Scripture: Rejoice always

Wednesday Talk: Favorite Scripture: Rejoice always

We should not as such count on man, but on what God lays in front of us. He knows what is best for us and He shall guide us through life; He will build up His church in His own time. We just have to show we trust Him and should have patience that He shall bear us the right things.

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  • “Sharing Hope Through Scripture for Those Facing a Crisis” (calvarychapelvisalia.wordpress.com)
    Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
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    Here’s why we can rejoice. ( And, by the way, it’s not rejoicing by saying, “oh I just love this painful thing that has come upon me ) but it’s a rejoicing, knowing what this problem, this tribulation, this trial will bring into our lives. In other words, we know they are good for us, and they can help us to learn, and to gain endurance, or perseverance. He says it very plainly, “Tribulation produces perseverance”
  • MVM – Cultivate a heart of gratitude (senioryouthcamp.wordpress.com)
  • Praying Scriptures and Affirmations to Bless You (onechosen.wordpress.com)
    So many have gone through some devastating  hardships, and others are still going through trials, which at times seem almost unbearable.  And even in the midst of the valley the enemy still won’t leave us alone.  He’s doing all he can to wear us down, mess with our minds and make us feel like the Lord doesn’t care about our pain and suffering.
  • Paul’s Persecution (faithfuldailyread.wordpress.com)
    Timothy, Paul and Silas were suffering for their bold preaching of the gospel. What a comfort it would have been to them to know that some of their life-saving words had fallen on fertile soil and Thessalonians were living for God. I imagine, despite their persecution, they would have rejoiced over the news that the Gentiles were still thriving in their new church.
  • Beyond Sunday – Hearing from God Every Day (suncrestcultivating.wordpress.com)
    I know the Bible is big and intimidating and often confusing.  I’ve cowered at the thought of reading it all.  But I took a step of faith a couple of years ago and made a commitment that I would not stop until I finished reading the entire Bible using the One Year Bible reading plan.  Well, I didn’t finish it in 12 months, and when I got behind, I got really frustrated.  However, I kept going and eventually read the entire Bible.  Let me just tell you as I honestly as I can about my experience and a few things I learned:
  • Soul Therapy (westminsterchurchcc.wordpress.com)
    psychologists have determined that one of the greatest contributing factors to your overall happiness in life is how much gratitude you show. (Disclaimer: The video is great, but there is one scene with some bad language.)
  • The Bad Evangelist Club: How NOT to Refute Sola Scriptura (catholiclane.com)
    Paul’s words as he wrote them are understood by him to be the Word of God not because they came from his quill or his intellectual articulation, but because Paul was writing that which was given to him by Christ.  He believed that what he was writing to the Church of Corinth was explicitly the word of God, and that if anyone disagreed; they could not be counted as a Christian.  (1 Cor 14:37)  St. Peter likewise tells the Jewish Diaspora that the letters “our beloved Brother Paul wrote to you” can be misinterpreted just like “the other Scriptures.”  (2 Peter 3:16)
  • The power of gratitude (christiantoday.com)
    The power of gratitude is something that psychology experts Jeffy J Froh and Giacomo Bono have been exploring for a number of years.They have conducted extensive research into the measurement and effects of gratitude in children and young people, finding that it is integral for healthy development.

    Children who exhibit higher levels of gratitude are more likely to be better at interacting socially, achieve higher grades at school and build stronger connections with their schools and communities. They are also likely to be more generous, and be better at planning for the future.

    “Gratitude is imperative for every child to learn,” says Froh. “It enhances children’s quality of life and helps them grow into beneficial members of society.”

  • Does God Reveal His Will to Us?? (mululumbi.wordpress.com)
    Does God reveal his will to us??God does reveal His will to us just not always in the way we expect. We want clear cut answers for the “BIG things”…We want God to tell us where exactly to go to college or University, what to major in, who to marry, what house to buy.
  • Is correcting and judging others a sin? (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
    My stand is that if you have the light of the Gospel in your belief and actions, then help others who are in their sins to get back to God and for that you are going to need to tell them they are Wrong in their ways. Now you can do that Calmly without getting irate. If they accept correction wisely then its good for their souls. But if people do not change after hearing you, it will still benefit others.
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Be Blessed Beauty

fave verse

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

I stumbled upon this verse one day a few years back, and it has been my favorite Scripture ever since. I can honestly say it has brought me through many downs in the past few seasons of hurt, worries, and life in general. My Faith has been growing stronger throughout the years, and my heart is filled with gratitude daily.

I hope this verse gives you comfort, a positive change in heart – especially those of you who have been struggling with life’s ups and downs.

May today be a day full of gratitude and blessings!

What are some of your favorite Bible Verses? Please do share!

Be BLESSED,

JJ 🙂

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People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions

As Byron ‘FLi’ Walker writes in Why We Need God most people looking for answers in their life find no deep or lasting fulfilment in their commitment to their leisure time to nature, art, music, and so on. He reminds us that humans have an inborn spiritual yearning which comes as no surprise to Bible readers. Those who regularly read the Bible have encountered enough places in those Scriptures where signs are given why and how we are to find ourselves in this world. In the Book of books, the Bible or Holy Scriptures it is written how Jehovah God, the Creator of heaven and earth, although His creation turned against Him, still wants to have a good relationship with them.KJV Bible

From the moment we do come on this earth we do feel the need to be connected with someone else and to have communication with those around us. also with the first humans there was already a communication going on with their Maker. God spoke with them regularly, allowing them to establish a spiritual relationship with Him. (Genesis 3:8-10) Children do have the need to speak with their parents. We do have our earthly parents but also an heavenly Father. As Creator of the universe, giving us life, placing us in His creation, He did not design us to live independently of Him. Made in the image of God, we also do have feelings but also needs. Like the Creator wanted to communicate with His creation we also do have a need to communicate with our Maker. The Bible refers to this need frequently.

Bible Study 2

Bible Study 2 (Photo credit: DrGBB)

We who want to live ‘godly lives’ can actually be deceiving ourselves into thinking that we are doing all the right things. Those who have found God already also may think they love God and may think that they are serving Him. But when they love Him, do they have a good relation with Him and do they communicate often with Him? Lots of people may think because they go to mass every Sunday they have done their bit of religiousness. They should know there is more to it than just attending all the functions on Sundays and midweek. What we love is revealed by what we find time to do in our daily life. By our very actions we tell God how much we love Him. We may be fooling ourselves. How much time do we spend thinking about God, reading His Word, caring for others and doing things just to please Him? When we have free time, what do we do with it? Do we turn to Bible reading and study, or do we turn to diversions such as computer activities, entertainment, or hobbies? When we say we do love God, Who do we want to take as our God? Those who are looking for some Special Being behind everything around us, are they willing to open their mind to the different ideas? Are they and we, willing to take in more research and knowledge, to have us spiritually growing? And in which we do we want to be connected to whom? When we look at the Old Testament we can find the importance placed on One Supreme Being but also on the hope for two things, one a man who is going to bring salvation and secondly a reign which shall be governed at first by that man. He will become at first the messenger of God bringing the Good News. He would suffer and find his life come to an end but than he would be taken out of the dead by God and made a mediator between God and man, restoring the broken relationship with the Creator. Therefore when we look for God we also should look for that one man who is called the restorer of faith and has taken in the place at the right hand of God to be the mediator between man and God. Clearly, that means it is somebody else than God. Meaning we have to find that person also to be able to speak with him or to ask things in his name to the One Who is called the Most High. The promised Saviour is Jeshua from the tribe of King David, better know today as Jesus Christ. When we do find him or get to know him, he can lead us to his Father, Who is the Most High Elohim Hashem Jehovah, the God of gods and all things. When we are prepared to become a disciple of Christ we can listen to his teachings and take them at heart. He made so many things clear, that we have made it so much easier to understand when we listen to his teachings.  Jesus also told his followers to continually seek to increase in knowledge and understanding. From him we got to know that this search in his Father’s Words is essential to get to know his Father fully well. Without taking the Words of Jesus his Father at heart it shall be impossible to find God. God’s Truth invites … indeed, it welcomes … investigation, we said already in the previous chapter. So when encountering a different view, we should seize the opportunity at least to understand the evidence provided. We can always learn something, and if we’re wise, we may need to adjust our own views accordingly.

On August 25, 325, the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical debate held by the early Christian church, concluded with the establishment of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I in May, the council also deemed the Arian belief of Christ as inferior to God as heretical, thus resolving an early church crisis. From that time onwards the church went astray and even more different teachings saw light, confusing lots of people. This event early in Christendom brought darkness in the eyes of the people. It made them going further away from God.  It took also the people away from seeing the truth of the man of flesh and bones, who said to his disciples he was not a spirit. Those disciples knew very well that God is Spirit and can not be seen by man or they would die. They knew they had seen Jesus. Some even had seen a dove and heard the voice from above, in heaven, saying that this man was His (God’s) beloved son.

In the 4th century men tried to get people far away form that idea of a man being able to follow God, not doing his own will but only the Will of God. They wanted and still want to have people believe that it is impossible for any human being to love God so much that they would like to do only His will and not theirs. Hearing of such impossibility that also has taken lots of people of their hope to become like Christ and to do the Will of God. We only can say the Roman emperor succeeded partly in what he wanted to get, having people adhering to the world more than to the Law of God.

The Arians and all those who preferred to believe in the One True and Only One God Who is One, were persecuted for their belief that Jesus is not coequal with his Father. All Christians were forced to believe that Jesus is not inferior to God or be considered heretics. Many found their life being ended at the stake or tortured until they stopped breathing and lost their life. Even in our age of tolerance today, those who reject the divinity of Christ are considered to be non-Christians by mainstream Christendom. Though in Christianity, through the times there have always been serious lovers of God who kept studying the Torah, the Old and the New Testament books of what is considered to be the canonic Bible today.

From the 4th century onwards a fog-curtain was pulled down by which a person who said “I am” was considered to be God. Those who were called “Jesus,” “Joshua,” “Chesu, “Jezus“, “Yashua” had to be God, this meaning that in the time when Jeshua te Nazarene was preaching, the other Jesus who was taught of to be the Messiah because he revolted against the Romans, there were and there are still many gods walking on this earth who should also be the God. This is naturally impossible and is no good way to look for The True God. In case people do want to find the True One and Only One God they should take away such false teachings or prescriptions. They should have to take the Words of the Bible, like they are written, black on white, without any dogmatic background teachings.

As long as people keep continue to hold fast on those dogmatic teachings of the many churches which came into existence after the Roman Catholic Church every time expelled those who did not agree with their power, it would be not easy to see through the fog. To find clarity we do have to believe God wants us to find Him and that He does not make it especially difficult, so that only theologians could find him. The Divine Creator took care that every body = all human beings, could come to know Him Who is responsible for their being. He is the Most High Elohim, the most powerful Authority, who has given mankind the most reliable set of unchanging guidelines, the Book of instructions, wisdom and answer to life’s question. The World shall not be able to find any book more reliable than this Book of books, which is the infallible Holy Word of God – The Bible! In the Bible humankind receives all the guidelines, the directions and laws they need at the time given. Certain things changed because the time and the people had changed. When we look at all the prophecies we also can notice some did not come into accomplishment. But we may be sure that like the previous prophecies became reality, the ones still to come, like World War III or Armageddon, the End-times, another thousand years after the Big Battle, shall happen when God considers it time to happen. Whatever shall happen, God did not want His people to stand in the cold and He assured them of a better time to come.

Those who are willing to believe in the One God and look forward to the return of His son, may find peace in the hope God has given the world. In the mean time people will have to come to know Who God is, what His Will is, what His Laws are and why we better keep to the Law of God, instead of trying to make better laws than Him. When we are willing to follow His directions and to listen to His Voice we shall get to know Him better. By keeping to His Law we also shall be able to make a safer life and a better way to live for our selves and for those around us.

Michelle Yee and many others know they can be a beloved daughter or son of the Most High King, when she writes:

It may not always be easy reading, understanding and interpreting it, but if you are diligent enough to read it than pray for wisdom to understand it, the revelation would come to you sooner or later. Either God will reveal it to you personally in spirit, or he will teach you through life experience, or perhaps God will reveal it to you through your pastor or someone else…. If you desire to seek God, you shall find him, if you seek him with all your heart… Seek him in prayer and seek in His word, eventually you’ll find Him… {Jeremiah 29:12}”

(11)  ‘For I know the plans I am planning for you,’ declares יהוה {Jehovah}, ‘plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and an expectancy.  (12)  ‘Then you shall call on Me, and shall come and pray to Me, and I shall listen to you.  (13)  ‘And you shall seek Me, and shall find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart1. Footnote: 1Dt. 4:29, Joel 2:12.  (14)  ‘And I shall be found by you,’ declares יהוה {Jehovah}, ‘and I shall turn back your captivity, and shall gather you from all the gentiles and from all the places where I have driven you, declares יהוה {Jehovah}. And I shall bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.’” (Jeremiah 29:11-14 The Scriptures 1998+)

From here we should go out and seek the Most High, Creator of all things, who we want to have as our Only One God. We do not need pictures or statues, special buildings or constructions to remind us of Him or to find Him. Those who are willing to look for Him, God shall be willing to let Him be found by them. We do have to look for Him. We do have to search after Him, with all our heart and with all our soul (= our whole being). We should not let us be frightened by those who mock at us or by those who laugh with us.  When others who joke with us bring us in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days we shall be able to come in front of our God, and listen to His Voice. Looking for God may be like looking for a treasure. And the treasure hunt map God has provided in the Bible.

Today we may already be sure that He is a merciful God Who does us want to know Him and not want to fail us, neither destroy us, nor forget the covenant of our forefathers which He swore to them. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?

” (29)  “But from there you shall seek יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim, and shall find, when you search for Him with all your heart1 and with all your being. Footnote: 1Jer. 29:13.  (30)  “In your distress, when all these words shall come upon you in the latter days, then you shall return to יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim and shall obey His voice.  (31)  “For יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim is a compassionate ?l, He does not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.” (Deuteronomy 4:29-31 The Scriptures 1998+)

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Preceding articles:

Finding God amid all the religious externals

Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God

People Seeking for God 1 Looking for answers

People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations

To be continued:

 People Seeking for God 4 Biblical terms

People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life

People Seeking for God 6 Strategy

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Please find also to read:

  1. Did the Inspirator exist
  2. God, Creation and the Bible Hope
  3. God’s design in the creation of the world
  4. God is One
  5. Only One God
  6. God of gods
  7. The one who makes us well and gives life
  8. The Divine name of the Creator
  9. Sayings around God
  10. Full authority belongs to God
  11. Pre-existence of Christ
  12. The Trinity – the truth
  13. Why believing the Bible
  14. Bible basic intro
  15. Who Wrote the Bible?
  16. The Bible: God’s Word or pious myth?
  17. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform
  18. Bible Word from God
  19. Pure Words and Testimonies full of Breath of the Most High
  20. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #4 Words in Scripture
  21. Creator and Blogger God 10 A Blog of a Book 4 Listening to the Blogger
  22. Creator and Blogger God 12 Old and New Blog 2 Blog for every day
  23. Bible a guide – Bijbel als gids
  24. Bible guide Taking the Bible as a lead
  25. Statutes given unto us
  26. Absolute Basics to Reading the Bible
  27. Digging in words, theories and artefacts
  28. Bible Translating and Concordance Making
  29. The Metaphorical language of the Bible
  30. Finding and Understanding Words and Meanings
  31. Out of Context: How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible
  32. Which View is Right?
  33. Bible in the first place #1/3
  34. Bible in the first place #2/3
  35. Bible in the first place #3/3
  36. Missional hermeneutics 1/5
  37. Missional hermeneutics 2/5
  38. Missional hermeneutics 3/5
  39. Missional hermeneutics 4/5
  40. Missional hermeneutics 5/5
  41. Bric-a-brac of the Bible
  42. Unsure about relevance Bible
  43. Appointed to be read
  44. Youth has difficulty Bible Reading
  45. Learn to read the Bible effectively
  46. We should use the Bible every day
  47. A Bible Falling Apart Belongs to Someone who isn’t
  48. The Bible is a today book
  49. Bible for you and for life
  50. Bible like puddle of water
  51. Cell phone vs. Bible
  52. How to look for and how to handle the Truth
  53. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
  54. Relapse plan
  55. Having Truth Decay?
  56. Jesus is the Son of God but Not God the Son
  57. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
  58. One mediator
  59. Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
  60. Politics and power first priority #1
  61. Politics and power first priority #2
  62. Politics and power first priority #3 Elevation of Mary and the Holy Spirit
  63. Many churches
  64. Prophets making excuses
  65. God is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him
  66. Hope
  67. True Hope
  68. Working of the hope
  69. Fear knocked at the door
  70. Getting to know the Truth

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Additional reading:

  1. If the Father is the “only true God” (John 17:3) , does that mean that Jesus is a false god?
  2. Some common misconceptions about the truth
  3. Trinity a false doctrine of a false church
  4. Is Jesus God?
  5. Is God an Impersonal Force?
  6. Massacre of children leaves many asking, ‘Where’s God?’
  7. Do You Allow God to Speak to You Every Day?
  8. Why We Need God

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  • Friday Devotional: Check Your Spirit (divinefaithfulness.wordpress.com)
    Living in complacency is not where God has called us to live. I sure have camped out there more times than I care to admit, though. Thinking that I didn’t need to go to church because I simply didn’t need to, saying that I loved God was good enough. Thinking that I didn’t need friends who loved God, that my old friends were just fine because they weren’t going to challenge me to live differently. Living in sin because, God will just forgive me anyway. Like it was all just no big deal. Ever been there, too?
  • A Sermon: Reading the Bible Together (davidswanson.wordpress.com)
    As a church we say that, “We desire to listen and submit to the Scripture, God’s revealed Word for His beloved children.” There are at least two important assumptions within this statement. The first is that God reveals himself through the Bible. God, being God, is so different from us that anything we know about God must be revealed by God. And though we don’t believe God has showed us everything about himself, as Christians we believe he has revealed enough for us to know him and experience his love and salvation. He has done this most importantly through his son.
    +
    It’s one thing to acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s role in the Bible’s writing and even our understanding. But when it comes to applying – to submitting – we act as though this is up to us, on our shoulders. But it’s not and this is why even a hard word – submit – a word few of us like, is a good word. For it is God who gives us the wisdom, strength, and stamina to live new and better lives in response to the Bible.
  • Real Truth never changes….. (wepresson.wordpress.com)
    In a world that seeks change there are some things that never change and
    it’s a good thing they don’t. Yes, there are absolute truths we can count on. The key is
    that they can only come from a Source that cannot be in error. Did you catch that?
    +
    And God promises to protect it down through the ages so that everyone has a chance to hear His truths and trust in His Son, our Savior, Jesus.
  • Advice from someone who knows. (commutewithchrist.com)
    We usually seek advice from people who have been in a similar situation or have knowledge of something that we don’t. But how often so we seek it from God? He’s written an entire book on how to live our lives. The Bible. It’s quite incredible that not many people seek it out given that in some shape or form it can give us direction and advice on everything we face in this life. It may not be the advice or guidance we want to hear but it’s in there. Work, relationships and money. These are the topics in our lives that we spend the most time thinking and worrying about.
  • The Word of God is perfect! (jooch1986.wordpress.com)
    all men have no excuse for not knowing Him or seeking Him.
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    Many people see the Scriptures as burdensome and full of rules.  Of course it will appear this way to those who do not know God and do not understand that His “yoke is easy and [His] burden is light (Matt. 11:30).  But really, the Word of God, or just decrees or whatever you want to call them are “more to be desired…than…even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey” (v. 10).  These are the words that show us the Way to eternal life with the perfect Creator of the universe who is all good, and in whom “there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
  • Intellectual Discipleship? Faithful Thinking for Faithful Living (pjcockrell.wordpress.com)
    The biblical master narrative serves as a framework for the cognitive principles that allow the formation of an authentically Christian worldview. Many Christians rush to develop what they will call a “Christian worldview” by arranging isolated Christian truths, doctrines, and convictions in order to create formulas for Christian thinking.
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    A God-centered worldview brings every issue, question, and cultural concern into submission to all that the Bible reveals, and it frames all understanding within the ultimate purpose of bringing greater glory to God. This task of bringing every thought captive to Christ requires more than episodic Christian thinking and is to be understood as the task of the church, and not merely the concern of individual believers. The recovery of the Christian mind and the development of a comprehensive Christian worldview will require the deepest theological reflection, the most consecrated application of scholarship, the most sensitive commitment to compassion, and the courage to face all questions without fear.
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    Christian faithfulness requires the conscious development of a worldview that begins and ends with God at its center. We are only able to think as Christians because we belong to Christ; and the Christian worldview is, in the end, nothing more than seeking to think as Christ would have us to think, in order to be who Christ would call us to be.
  • Communication with our Father (eviej13.wordpress.com)
    The ability to communicate is often taken for granted and we just expect people to know what we want from them. Although God Does know what we want from Him, there is still nothing more important than our communication with Him.
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    Reading the Bible can help us sort through all the craziness to see what’s really important. It can bring about peace in our lives rather than allowing us to wallow in our confusion.
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    Nothing should become more important than getting into the Word and the Word into us. We will suffer the spiritual consequences of not feeding on the Word of God as we would suffer the physical consequences of not having a regular meal.
  • Psalm 78 as a Microcosm of the Bible (blogforthelordjesuschristianleaders.wordpress.com)
    Psalm 78 is a microcosm of the entire Bible in that it was written in ancient times, chronicling the works of the Lord in the face of the faithlessness of man, that all succeeding generations might learn from this written record that God is good and that there reward in obeying Him.
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     A Nonchurchgoer’s Guide to Jesus and His Kingdom.
  • What is the Bible and what are we supposed to do with it? (theway21stcentury.wordpress.com)
    Christians often use terms like inerrant, infallible, authoritative and inspired, but not all of these are Biblical terms, and not all of them represent clear Biblical concepts. We should be willing to modify or deepen our understanding based on the best in information we have.
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    Most christians belief that Jesus was (and is) God incarnate (i.e. in a human body), and that he was at once fully God and fully human. Enns suggests we perhaps should also consider the Bible as both a human and divine document, in that it is fully grounded in the language, culture and thought forms of its day, yet it is also God’s means of revealing himself to the world.But instead of presuming we know how ‘God’s word’ ought to be, we should study and learn how it actually is …. and so learn more about God’s character.
  • The Greatest Gift: A Defense (triggermanblog.wordpress.com)
    Probably the greatest gift that I have ever received, from anyone, was the first Bible I was old enough to read.
    Oh, I was given story bibles with those smiling pictures and happy tales of when God did great things for those men, and women, of old. But I always knew that I wasn’t getting the whole picture, it was like I was getting spoon-fed some rhetoric, choice tales about God being my “buddy”if I would just put on a smile and believe. So, when I finally got my first “real” Bible, I was excited to be able to get to the real story, not the smiling faces and happy tales that were glossy and inspiring to me as a happy child, I wanted something more to understand the psychology of this God who was recorded as doing these great things.
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