Bible, sword of the Spirit to come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man

Posted on 2015/05/11 by Marcus Ampe

“(For the choir director. A Psalm of David.) The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” (Psalms 19:1 NAS)

“1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:1-3 NAS)

“thus says the Lord GOD, “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.” (Isaiah 7:7 NAS)

“Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.” (Jeremiah 1:9 NAS)

“”Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” (John 14:10 NAS)

“And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17 NAS)

“He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” (Exodus 3:6 NAS)

“And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20 NAS)

“”Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.”” (Revelation 4:11 NAS)

“2 God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD; 3 and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but [by] My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.” (Exodus 6:2-3 NAS)

“13 “And you say, ’What does God know? Can He judge through the thick darkness? 14 ’Clouds are a hiding place for Him, so that He cannot see; And He walks on the vault of heaven.’” (Job 22:13-14 NAS)

“5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, “Arise, bless the LORD your God forever and ever! O may Thy glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! 6 “Thou alone art the LORD. Thou hast made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. Thou dost give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before Thee. 7 “Thou art the LORD God, Who chose Abram And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, And gave him the name Abraham.” (Nehemiah 9:5-7 NAS)

“7 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God. 8 “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, And your burnt offerings are continually before Me. 9 “I shall take no young bull out of your house, Nor male goats out of your folds. 10 “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. 11 “I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all it contains. 13 “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of male goats? 14 “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High; 15 And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.” 16 But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes, And to take My covenant in your mouth? 17 “For you hate discipline, And you cast My words behind you.” (Psalms 50:7-17 NAS)

“11 And He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;” (Ephesians 4:11-14 NAS)

“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1 NAS)

“9 but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND [which] HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” 10 For to us God revealed [them] through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10 NAS)

“14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE SHOULD INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 NAS)

“Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him?” (Isaiah 40:13 NAS)

“5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 [to be specific], that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,” (Ephesians 3:5-6 NAS)

“that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and [attaining] to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, [resulting] in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, [that is,] Christ [Himself],” (Colossians 2:2 NAS)

“Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.” (Proverbs 23:9 NAS)

“1 Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, And the man who was raised on high declares, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel, 2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.” (2 Samuel 23:1-2 NAS)

“”Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.” (Acts 1:16 NAS)

“And when they did not agree with one another, they [began] leaving after Paul had spoken one [parting] word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers,” (Acts 28:25 NAS)

“seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” (1 Peter 1:11 NAS)

“20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NAS)

“”But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26 NAS)

“16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NAS)

“And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted [it] not [as] the word of men, but [for] what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NAS)

“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4 NAS)

“Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11 NAS)

“49 Remember the word to Thy servant, In which Thou hast made me hope. 50 This is my comfort in my affliction, That Thy word has revived me.” (Psalms 119:49-50 NAS)

“7 “The beginning of wisdom [is:] Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding. 8 “Prize her, and she will exalt you; She will honor you if you embrace her. 9 “She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty.”” (Proverbs 4:7-9 NAS)

“The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on folly.” (Proverbs 15:14 NAS)

“”And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”” (Matthew 13:23 NAS)

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14 NAS)

“And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every [branch of] literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all [kinds of] visions and dreams.” (Daniel 1:17 NAS)

“There is no wisdom and no understanding And no counsel against the LORD.” (Proverbs 21:30 NAS)

“Listen to counsel and accept discipline, That you may be wise the rest of your days.” (Proverbs 19:20 NAS)

“7 Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. 10 For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus [and] with [it] eternal glory.” (2 Timothy 2:7-10 NAS)

“even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life.” (John 17:2 NAS)

“2 for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:2-4 NAS)

Comparative Study Bible NIV_KJV_NASB_AMP

Preceding articles:

Coming to understanding from sayings written long ago

Bibel, Schwert des Geistes, in die Einheit des Glaubens und der Erkenntnis des Sohnes Gottes

Bijbel, zwaard van de Geest in de eenheid van het geloof en van de kennis van de Zoon van God om tot een volkomen mens te komen

Bible, épée de l’Esprit à venir dans l’unité de la foi et de la connaissance du Fils de Dieu

Additional literature:

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“I will Guide Thee with Mine Eye” (Psalm 32:8) (theeyesoffaith.wordpress.com)
He is Risen! (fbcpolson.wordpress.com)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Coming in the back door to triune faith (The Epistle Passage) (asimpledesire.wordpress.com)
New Wine And New Wineskins (Mark 2) (answersfromthebook.org)
Scripture of the Day, 4/28 (sowegalive.com)
The Battle Prayer (gracesyllables.com)
Trusting the Guidance of God
I’ve been praying about this…
Master Teacher
Search for Truth: Brighter Days Ahead
The Bible Says
What the preacher should do when the sermon sucks — three tips for before heading to the pulpit
In order to hold fast to truth, one must understand the truth
The Bible: A Holy Resolution
God’s Word: A Sword for the Battle
God’s Word: The security of forever
God’s Word: The place to go to learn how to live
Verse of the Day
Not Just Words
Ratzinger on the Bible as the Word of God
Papyri, Catalysts, and The Book of Abraham
The Blessing of Scripture
Reasons to read the Old Testament #2
Why Should We Study The Word
The Power of Meditation On God’s Word

First month of the year and predictions

Posted on 2015/03/25 by Bijbelvorsers

Nisan, the first month of the ecclesiastical year and for the Jews the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the civil year, it is the month were renewal is at the tip of the tongues. In the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv, referring to the month in which barley was ripe. But in the Book of Esther in the Tanakh and in the Christian Bible it is referred to as Nisan.

Jesus, being a Jew commemorated also the salvation of the Israelite firstborns during the Plague of the Firstborn.

According to standard biblical chronology, the Jewish people got its freedom after that tenth plague wrought upon Ancient Egypt. Jehovah had spoken to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt requiring them to remember the moment He was going to give them as part of the month which had to be the beginning of months. Being the first month of the year to the people of God.

Exo 12:1-2 The Scriptures 1998+ (1) And יהוה {Jehovah} spoke to Mosheh and to Aharon in the land of Mitsrayim, saying, (2) “This month is the beginning of months for you, it is the first month of the year for you.

For those who followed the orders of God there was no problem but for the others who did not listen to the Most High every firstborn in the Land of Mitzrayim (Ancient Egypt) got struck.

Exo 12:23-30 The Scriptures 1998+ (23) “And יהוה {Jehovah} shall pass on to smite the Mitsrites, and shall see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and יהוה {Jehovah} shall pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. (24) “And you shall guard this word as a law for you and your sons, forever. (25) “And it shall be, when you come to the land which יהוה {Jehovah} gives you, as He promised, that you shall guard this service. (26) “And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ (27) then you shall say, ‘It is the Passover slaughtering of יהוה {Jehovah} , who passed over the houses of the children of Yisra’ĕl in Mitsrayim when He smote the Mitsrites and delivered our households.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and did obeisance. (28) And the children of Yisra’ĕl went away and did so – as יהוה {Jehovah} had commanded Mosheh and Aharon, so they did. (29) And it came to be at midnight that יהוה {Jehovah} smote all the first-born in the land of Mitsrayim, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of livestock. (30) And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Mitsrites. And there was a great cry in Mitsrayim, for there was not a house where there was not a dead one.

The Old Moore’s Almanac which has been published in Ireland since the year 1764 makes every year predictions. You need only look back on the monthly predictions it projects to realise just how inaccurate it is – just a bit of a ‘break’ here and there. but it was very popular and still today people are fascinated with predictions. Strangely enough they may find a book full of predictions, but which is not so popular because it gives predictions but also a lot of warnings which seem to be frightening, because they demand an honouring of Somebody Who cannot be seen. Though that Book of books may present lots of predictions we can verify with what happened in the past and see that they came true.

The Bible not only makes predictions, its batting average is 100%. Usually when we read the prophecies from elsewhere we end up knowing that they really haven’t got a clue – just a good calculated guess here and there. Prophecy for us humans with a consistency and without generalisation, well, our track record is not good. We can travel in space but not into the future.

Today people got more frightened with ISIS and other fundamental groups terrorising whole populations and killing people like it are just flees to be done with. Lots of people wonder if there is hope in what is increasingly being seen as a hopeless world. They should come to see that the future is plain to God as is the past and that gives us security.

With the first month of the religious year of the People of God, not only the Israelites got liberated, but also for the gentiles was given hope by the one who was also called the son of David and son of Abraham. this time it was not just a year old male taken from the sheep or from the goats.

Exo 12:5-6 The Scriptures 1998+ (5) ‘Let the lamb be a perfect one, a year old male. Take it from the sheep or from the goats. (6) ‘And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then all the assembly of the congregation of Yisra’ĕl shall kill it between the evenings.

The world got offered a new spotless lamb. That perfect one was born as the only begotten son of God and anointed by his heavenly Father. Not having spot or wrinkle or any of this sort, but that it might be set-apart and blameless, the 33 year old one gave himself for the sins of many. Herein we do have our hope. Isaiah had forecasted that a baby will be born who will be a sign in the world. Beyond any short term fulfilment of that sign it pointed to someone coming who will really fulfil the sign and in their coming to the world, start a train of events that will make a difference both in time and eternity.

The baby born in Bethlehem, grown up in Nazareth had walked up to Jerusalem, God’s city and was now ready to have him taken prisoner, flogged and killed. Nobody can do God anything, but man can do a lot of awful things to another man. So Jesus had all the reason to be afraid and even to go sweating blood and water, at one moment even doubting the future and crying to his heavenly Father why He the God of gods had left him, now when he was in his hour of death.

Isaiah and others had made predictions about that sign which would come. Predictions in Old Testament days often had a short range fulfilment which prepares our minds to accept a long-range and far more significant fulfilment of what has been promised. The predictions are often fulfilled a couple of times. There’s an immediate fulfilment, and there’s also a long-term fulfilment.

500 years after the time of Isaiah, and about 250 years before the time of Jesus Christ, 70 scholars met in Egypt with the aim of getting the Old Testament from the Hebrew into the Greek language. Coming to the verse about a young woman they saw more in this event than a child back then. They saw that a child would be ‘God with us’. Lots of people came to understand that God could only be with us when He would be here on earth. They forget that God is everywhere and always is present all over. Having the ‘Immanuel‘ or God with us does not mean that the child would be The God. Throughout times many were called ‘Immanuel‘ or ‘Emmanuel,’ also today, but for sure they are not God here on earth..
What got fulfilled at Bethlehem was that the promise first made in the Garden of Eden came into fulfilment. Jesus of Nazareth was the personification of that Word given by God (John 1:1). He was going to present God’s Word in the world and let enough people see Who the heavenly Father really is. He also wanted to have people to understand how important it is not to do our own will but to try to come to do God His Will, like Jesus all his lifetime tried to do God His will and not his.

It was God His will that there would come a saviour to bring an end to the curse of the fall, the sin of man. Now the time had come in the first month of the year. Spring was near, but now had to come a more important Spring. He had to be the Spring of life, the Source of life for many. That is what we are commemorating soon. The liberation of God’s people is the first thing we do have to remember, but secondly we do have to commemorate the evening that Jesus gathered in the upper room with his close disciples and dearest friends.

The coming days we should prepare for that holy moment when wine became a symbol for blood and bread the symbol for the life giving flesh of the promised one.

Find also:

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Jews Around The World Recognize Strength, Pride With Purim Celebrations (newyork.cbslocal.com)
Jews around the world are celebrating Purim, a joyous holiday that teaches lessons about strength and pride in your identity.
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“The good part is hidden and wrapped up. You have to know that in all of nature we don’t see God, but he’s hidden somewhere,” Yosef Rapoport said.
Netanyahu and Queen Esther of Persia (rehmat1.com)
“Tomorrow night, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we’ll read the Book of Esther. We’ll read of a powerful Persian viceroy named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago. But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen Esther, exposed the plot and gave for the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies. The plot was foiled. Our people were saved,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu, Persia, Purim and Esther (stream.org)
Netanyahu specifically mentioned Esther, Persia, Haman and the Feast of Purim. Here is what happened in the story. Haman, a wealthy high official, had tricked the king of Persia, Ahasuerus (many scholars think this was Artaxerxes II) into issuing a special order. According to Persian law, once such an order was issued, it could not be rescinded. The order required that all the scattered Jews throughout the empire (including Canaan, the location of modern Israel) be attacked and wiped out on a certain day.
No Mask Needed When Defending Israel (blogs.timesofisrael.com)
Since the original decree calling for a “day of rage” could not be overturned, the king permitted the Jews to fight back in self defense. Instead of what was to be a “final solution” for the Jews, 75,800 men were killed. No Jewish casualties are recorded, although the Book of Esther does mention that no spoils of war were taken, indicating that the Jews were only fighting because they were being attacked.

The story of Purim has repeated itself more than a few times in our history. Just over 70 years ago, the Holocaust, and shortly thereafter, Israel’s War of Independence was launched with the intended goal of our total decimation.
Netanyahu and Queen Esther of Persia (mooglemeow.blogspot.com)
‘Benjamin Netanyahu while addressing the American Knesset in Washington DC invoked Persians’ hatred toward country’s Jewish community over 2500 years ago.
Residents of Moldaw Enjoy a Purim Art Project and Time of Reflection with Local Students (ireport.cnn.com)
our students spent time reflecting upon what they discovered about themselves, others and how they may make a difference in the world.
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“Everyone feels uplifted when the children visit and they can exchanges stories and discuss their lives and particular holidays, like Purim,” said Thia Tran, lifestyles director at Moldaw Residences. “The intergenerational interaction is beneficial for everyone involved and always brings such joy to our residents. We’re happy to welcome the students and their families any time they want to visit.”
Seeking Esther (susanlapin.typepad.com)
There is much that humans need to do and, tragically, too many people today, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are not standing up to the challenges of our time. However, no matter what we do, no matter how strong our military, no matter how advanced our technology, we need to deeply believe and modify our behavior in accordance with, the additional words, “God willing,” iin order to act as descendants of Moses and Esther. May God deliver us from evil today as He did long ago in Persia, reaffirming the blessing we say before reading the Book of Esther, “in those days as at this time.”

Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh

Posted on 2014/05/28 by Marcus Ampe

In the previous postings I talked about the torn, business card-size fragment which found instant fame when Harvard historian Karen King announced its discovery in September 2012, because it bears the startling line: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”

The manuscript written in Coptic, the language of early Christians living in Egypt, has the beginning and end of each line of the manuscript missing. It could be interpreted as a record of a conversation between Jesus and his disciples, in which the disciples tell Jesus: “Mary [Magdalene] is not worthy of it,” and Jesus responds that his wife — presumably Mary Magdalene — “will be able to be his disciple.”

Example Jesus

“Christ gave the example
Now you have been called to this, really, because Christ also suffered in our behalf, leaving you17 an example that you should follow in His footsteps: (22) who did not commit sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth; (23) who being reviled did not revile in return, suffering did not threaten but committed it to Him who judges righteously; (24) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, so that we, having died to those sins,18 might live for the19 righteousness; by whose wound20 you were healed.” (1Pe 2:21-24 WPNT)

For many Christians Christ Jesus should give the good example. This means that a male of that age should have been married, so Jesus should have had a wife and normal sexual relationship. Most Christians take Jesus also to be god, forgetting he is the son of God and not god the son, he like the Father in heaven ‘Yahweh” would have a wife.

Essence of life belongs to only One

It is very well know that between the 10th century BCE and the beginning of their exile in 586 BCE, polytheism was normal throughout Israel. According to many scholars it was only after the exile that worship of Yahweh alone became established, and possibly only as late as the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BCE) that monotheism became universal among Jews. As a believer I do believe the Holy Scriptures and accept that there have always through history have been people honouring and worshipping the Only One True God, who later gave His Name to be known all over the world as “The I Am Who Is the Being, the Essence of Life”, the Elohim God of gods Hashem Jehovah.

Threat of false teachings

The false teachings of those who liked the plural gods soon entered the world of the followers of the Nazarene Jeshua (Jesus Christ). The apostles described already in the Acts of the apostles that their community was already under threat for this danger. The acts of Peter show more of those false teachings having been entered in the Christian faith.

Mother goddess

Asherah אֲשֵׁרָה Goddess of motherhood and fertility, Lady of the Sea

One of those teachings was that the god of heaven and earth had a counterpart or Dione, which like ‘Elat means “Goddess”. Before Christ Jesus the prophets, like Jeremiah, also warned people not to fall for such “Queen of Heaven” or a “Mother god”. In the Book of Jeremiah, written circa 628 BCE, where the people pray to ha asherah or Asherah ( ‘ṯrt; אֲשֵׁרָה‎, ʼAṯirat, Ashratum/Ashratu) the mother goddess or the Queen of Heaven Jehovah is provoked to anger. (Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17–19, 25).

“Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah” and “Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah.” are inscription been found. We should know that several polytheist also adhered Yahweh and even Romans kept a shrine for the God, Whose name they were not quite sure He had. (The unknown God of heaven and earth.)

Relation between Yahweh and other gods

Yahweh having had a temple in Samaria raises a question over the relationship between Yahweh and Kaus (Qaush, Kaush, Qaus, Kos, and Qaws), the national god of Edom. {Keel, Othmar; Uehlinger, Christoph (1998). Gods, Goddesses, And Images of God. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 228. ISBN 9780567085917. Retrieved 10 March 2014.}

It has been suggested that the Israelites might consider Asherah as a consort of Baal due to the anti-Asherah ideology which was influenced by the Deuteronomistic History at the later period of Monarchy. {Sung Jin Park, “The Cultic Identity of Asherah in Deuteronomistic Ideology of Israel,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 123/4 (2011): 553–564.}

Male or female god

For certain Christians The Hebrew God Yahweh or Elohim is conceived of biblically as a male deity, which is is of course not surprising in a patriarchal or male-ruled society. Lots of Christians seem to overlook that in the Bible is written that God the Elohim is not comparable to a human being and is an eternal Spirit and as such does not have a male or female site, no bones, no flesh with blood running through.

Susan Ackerman notes also that there are some feminizations of Yahweh in Isaiah (e.g., “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you” [66:13]; see also 42:14 and 49:15). But then Isaiah also refers to kings as “nursing fathers” (49:23) and to daughters who “shalt suck the breasts of kings” (60:16), words that cannot be taken literally. In any case, Yahweh outside of some Isaianic imagery is masculine in the Hebrew Bible. In the New Testament, “God” translates the Greek Theos, with God remaining a male deity. Thus Jesus regularly uses the word Father (Greek Pater, in Jesus’ Aramaic Abba) for God (e.g., Matthew 6:8-9; Mark 14:36; Luke 10:21; John 17:1; see also Paul’s use in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6).

Masculine and feminine terms

God-Bearer, Lady of the Sign, temper on board, 19th c., Russia – Supraśl – Museum of Icons

In the previous chapters I spoke about those Gnostic gospels where we can find the thought of the divine in both masculine and feminine terms, with Jesus referring to the Holy Spirit as his Mother in the Gospel of Thomas and in the Gospel to the Hebrews, and with the Apocryphon of John describing the Trinity as Father, Mother, and Son. It is in that trinitarian thinking that most people adhere to the mother of god-idea, taking Miriam/Miryam or Saint Mary or Virgin Mary as “Blessed Virgin Mary” being the mother of Jesus Christ, the mother of God or even the Theotokos, literally “Bearer of God”.

Gerunds no personal figures

Man Satan and Lady Wisdom

Several Christians do like to give nouns, substantives or gerunds a personal figure, and as such make the word ‘satan’ which means the adversary a literal figure with the name Satan. Wisdom they make into God and as such find proof that God is also a Woman. This is than affirmed for them in the Apocrypha where ‘Lady Wisdom‘ is identified with the Torah or biblical law (Sirach 24:23; Baruch 4:1). Many Christians like in the same way to use the Greek word Logos as the person Jesus, where in the New Testament the preexistent Word (Greek: Logos) at the beginning of the Gospel of John is reminiscent of Wisdom and of being God and being Christ Jesus, as such them having to be one and the same person. When the apostle Paul later calls Christ “the wisdom of God” (Greek Theou Sophia) then the cat’s away the mice will play. (1 Corinthians 1:24)

Husband and wife metaphor

The metaphor of Yahweh and the Hebrew people as husband and wife is found first in the book of Hosea, and continues in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. When there is spoken of a troubled marriage, for despite Yahweh’s “love toward the children of Israel,” they “look to other gods” it is not about a literal marriage.

“And Yahweh said to me, Go again, love a woman loved by a companion, but [is] an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.” (Hosea 3:1 UPD)

Children of Israel

The Israelites, god’s chosen people more than once forgot what their Protector and Redeemer had done, and committed ‘adultery’ in the eyes of God.

Yahweh or Jehovah loving the sons is not love like many would like to imagine they having to love some one. The love of Yahweh/Jehovah has nothing to do with a sexual relationship. His love for the sons of Israel which will return (Hosea 3:5) has all to do with the People God made for himself. The wife and/or the bride of which the Bible speaks God has is a figurative ‘wife‘ or ‘spouse‘. The ones that seek Yahweh or Jehovah their God, and David their king, and will come with fear to the Only One True God and to His goodness in the latter days, He is willing to take unto Him like a man would take a wife unto him.

“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: (5) Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek YHWH their Elohim, and David their king; and shall fear YHWH and his goodness in the latter days.” (Hosea 3:4-5 RNKJV)

Bride Israel

In several places in the Holy Scriptures we can find “The Wife” or “the bride” as a metaphor for the Israelite people, the “Chosen Ones” or the Jews, and later for the Jews and gentiles or converted heathen who wanted to follow the son of God.

Marriage strict bond between God and Israel

As marriage is a matter of a strict bond, Jehovah wants also to have a strict bond or covenant between the two parties, Him (the Creator) and the ones who want to be connected with Him, God His people, or “Israel“. The bed or couch God wants His people to take is with Him, who is the Maker of all. In the past Jehovah had to see more than ones that His people Israel choose to have their beds down with others. For that reason He also provided a new bond or a new marriage, with His son and those who wanted to recognise him as the son of God and as the Messiah, as presenter of the New Covenant.

“For thy Maker is thine husband; YHWH of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The Elohim of the whole earth shall he be called.” (Isaiah 54:5 RNKJV)

” Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice. (8) Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.” (Isaiah 57:7-8 RNKJV)

“For as a youth marries a virgin, thus your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom joys over the bride, thus your Elohim rejoices over you. ” (Isaiah 62:5 ECB)

Israel showing no fidelity to marriage vows

The backsliding children (the Israelites) had neglected many times the pleas of the Most High, though He let them know that He was totally connected to them like man and wife are connected with their marriage vows. he always wanted to offer the honourable and honest the safest place where they could find rest in His bed. The Elohim, God of gods is the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, and His name is Holy, and everybody should come to know His Name: Jehovah; the One Who dwells in the high and holy place, even with the contrite and humble of spirit; to make live the spirit of the humble and to make live the heart of the contrite ones.

“(1.5) For thus said the High and Lofty One that inhabit eternity, whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and Holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. (16) For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made. (17) For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth, and smote him: I hid Me, and was wroth, and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. ” (Isaiah 57:15-17 RHB)

“Jehovah also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what the apostate Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree, and has fornicated there. (7) And after she had done all these, I said, She will return to Me; but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. (8) And I watched. When for all the causes for which the apostate Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and I gave the writ of her divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and fornicated. (9) And it happened, from the wantonness of her harlotry she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with pieces of wood. (10) And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, says Jehovah. (11) And Jehovah said to me, The apostate Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah. (12) Go and cry these words toward the north, and say, Return, O apostate Israel, says Jehovah. I will not cause My face to fall on you, for I am merciful, says Jehovah; I will not keep anger forever. (13) Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have rebelled against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah. (14) Return, O apostate sons, declares Jehovah; for I am Lord over you. And I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. (15) And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. (16) And it will be, when you multiply and increase in the land in those days, says Jehovah, they will no longer say, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah! Nor shall it come to the heart, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made any more. (17) At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah. And all nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. And they shall not walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.” (Jeremiah 3:6-17 LITV)

The Bed of Jehovah

The bed of Jehovah and the throne of Jehovah, are the places where those who love God should come to. We like the children of Israel should remember:

” Turn O backsliding children, declares YHWH; because I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family and I will bring you to Zion:” (Jeremiah 3:14 UTV)

Broken bond

The marriage bond was broken by those people of Israel, because they committed ‘adultery‘. Ezekiel 23 allegorizes Samaria and Jerusalem, the Israelite and Judahite capitals, as two sisters with a host of foreign lovers while both are married to Yahweh and should have known the Will of this Most High Jehovah. It are such passages which deem to be very disturbing to feminist commentators when they look at what they call the brutal punishment of the women by God. Those women symbolize Israel’s unfaithfulness. As noted by Kathleen M. O’Connor, the portrayal of physical abuse by the divine in such passages implicitly condones such behaviour in humans.

Open Invitation to non-Israelites

Kinsmen Redeemer

In the Holy Scriptures we can find the invitation of the Divine Creator God to human beings to become His People and to come and sit down. For the daughter of Babylon (the unbelievers but also the spurious church) may sit on the ground; though they might say to be on the throne of Peter, there is no throne, because they will have lured many people in their base, but would find that at a certain time they would no more be called tender and delicate. We may even see that at such a time those in high position may become undressed. They shall be bare and many (not all) shall come to see their nakedness uncovered. In such way there might still be hope, because then her shame (of those institutions or the church) will be seen. But no way out, Jehovah will take vengeance and He says in the Book of Jeremiah that He will not meet them as a man. As for our kinsmen- redeemer, YHWH יהוה {Jehovah} of Hosts is his Name, the Holy One of Israel or better: the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

“Come down and sit upon the dust, thou virgin daughter of Babel, sit upon the earth: no throne, thou daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt not be added for them to call thee tender and delicate. (2) Take the two mill-stones and grind flour, and uncover thy veil; strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. (3) Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, also thy reproach shall be seen: I will take vengeance, I will not make peace with man. (4) Jehovah of armies redeemed us, his name the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 47:1-4 Julia)

Whore of Babylon (woman of Babylon) – Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)

Virgin daughter of Babylon

We may find it cruel that Jehovah strips “the virgin daughter of Babylon” in Isaiah 47:1-4, and helps the Babylonians rape Jerusalem in Jeremiah 13:26 and that He trods “the virgin” Jerusalem “as in a winepress” (Lamentations 1:15), and that He raises up their lovers against them as a jealous husband, stripping them out of their clothes.

“For this, O Aholibah, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Behold me raising up those loving thee, against thee, whom thy soul was rent away from them, and I brought them against thee from round about (23) The sons of Babel and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the sons of Amur with them: young men of desire, prefects and governors, all of them third men, and celebrated, riding horses all of them. (24) And they came against thee firm with chariot and wheel, and with a convocation of peoples, shield and buckler and helmet, they will set against thee round about: and I gave judgment before them, and they judged thee with their judgments. (25) And I gave my jealousy against thee, and they did with thee in wrath: thy nose and thine ears they shall take away; and thy posterity shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy posterity shall be consumed in fire. (26) And they stripped thee of thy garments, and they took the instrument of thy glory. (27) And I caused thy wickedness to cease from thee, and thy fornication from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt not lift up thine eyes to them, and thou shalt remember Egypt no more.” (Ezekiel 23:22-27 Julia)

Mutilated wife

The Adonay Yah Veh, Jehovah looks at His people like a man looks at his wife. But this does not have to mean that He was really married to a wife and certainly not to Asherah, the consort of El (“god”), the supreme god of Canaan and father of the popular Baal. Several Catholic theologians have written many books on Asherah as the wife of Yahweh. Some, not all, have overlooked these metaphors of Jehovah. For many of them the husband physically abusing his wife presents a challenge to modern biblical interpreters. Through such imagery “the Bible,” writes Sharon H. Ringe in The Women’s Bible Commentary,

“seems to bless the harm and abuse with which women live and sometimes die.”

The brutality seems hardly ameliorated by Yahweh’s assurances to his mutilated wife of a brighter tomorrow, for they make God sound like the stereotypical wife beater who minimizes what he has done and promises not to do it again:

“In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee… Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel,… and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry” (Isaiah 54:8; Jeremiah 31:4).

The French epigrapher Andre Lemaire looking at some graffiti, inscriptions dating from the eighth century BCE, found on walls and storage jars at two sites, Khirbet el-Kom and Kuntillet Ajrud, in Israel, declaring:

“I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his asherah,” and “I bless you by Yahweh of Teiman and by his asherah.”

brings him wrongly to the conclusion that Jehovah should have a wife or woman goddess.

“Whatever an asherah is, Yahweh had one!”

he says.

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”

Marriage of Jesus 7 Impaled

To be followed by:

Marriage of Jesus 9 Reason for a new marriage

Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant

Jesus … will come in the same way as you saw him go

Posted on 2014/04/25 by Christadelphians

“Jesus … will come in the same way as you saw him go”

These words should be familiar to all Bible readers: they are the words of the “two men … in white robes” (a common way of describing angels) – it is what they said to the disciples as their astonished eyes watched their Lord ascend upwards “and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9-11). We suspect it was no ordinary cloud, but like the cloud that Moses climbed up into on the mountain (Exodus 24:16).

“9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11 ASV)

“And the glory of Jehovah abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.” (Exodus 24:16 ASV)

Israel location Judea and Samaria. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Countless generations of Bible believers have looked for their Lord to descend from heaven in their lifetime. The disciples had asked,

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (verse 6)

and were told by their Lord they were to be “my witnesses in Jerusalem” – but ultimately that the witnessing was to be “to the end of the earth” (verse 8). He had said this earlier, also on the mount of Olives,

“this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

The other sign which Jesus gave, which Luke also recorded, was that

“Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (21:24).

Today, Jerusalem is constantly a centre of world attention – and the returned Jews have made it the capital of their resurrected country. The evidence is plain that the climax of the ages is near. But we know, and must emphasize that it was not for his disciples, then or now, to know exactly when. Notice again the answer of Jesus when the disciples asked him,

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (verse 6).

They were commissioned to be “my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria” (verse 8). It is for true believers today to complete that commission “… and to the end of the earth”.

Are you his disciple? Are you helping this commission to be carried out? If you are, you will be really looking for his return “in the same way (as the disciples) saw him go into heaven”.

As his disciple you will be following the examples given in the book of Acts, which we have now started reading. Notice the way in which the Old Testament is often quoted as an essential part of that message. It tells us many details of the Kingdom Jesus will set up, also giving us examples of faithful service (and failures) as we are reading in the book of Deuteronomy.

Additional reads:

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Friday (April 25): “It is the Lord.” (shechina.wordpress.com)
Skeptics who disbelieve the resurrection say the disciples only saw a vision of Jesus. The Gospels, however, give us a vivid picture of the reality of the resurrection. Jesus went out of his way to offer his disciples various proofs of his resurrection – that he is real and true flesh, not just a spirit or ghost. In his third appearance to the apostles, after Jesus performed the miraculous catch of fish, he prepared a breakfast and ate with them. Peter’s prompt recognition of the Master – It is the Lord! – stands in sharp contrast to his previous denial of his Master during the night of Jesus’ arrest. The Lord Jesus reveals himself to each of us as we open our hearts to hear his word. Do you recognize the Lord’s presence in your life and do you receive his word with faith?
The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven (viviansielaff.wordpress.com)
After Jesus resurrection He was with the disciples for forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:2-3). And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; “for John truly baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which they Father has put in His own authority. “But you shall receive power when they Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:4-8
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This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Luke 9:28-36 (arietta18.wordpress.com)
at the transfiguration, Peter, John, and James would, in a sense, get to see the kingdom of God.
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This appearance was the same or similar to the appearance that Jesus would have after his resurrection when hewas exalted to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father.Later, in Acts, when Stephen, the first recorded Christian martyr, was being stoned to death, he “looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55b NIV). A few chapters later, the Apostle Paul saw Jesus appear to him
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In the transfiguration, we get a glimpse of heaven, where all the dead in Christ will rise and be glorified with him.
Mystery – What causes a Christian to be set apart part 2? (lhwm1.wordpress.com)
There is a mystery that surrounds the cross of Christ. Jesus the Son of God, Savior of mankind, Lord of Lords and King of Kings beaten until He no longer looks like a human being. Unbelievers see Jesus as weak and unable to stop His horrible death. (Luke 23:35, 39)
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The death of the coming Messiah was told to the prophets of the Old Testament (Isaiah 53) and was planned before the beginning of time. The mystery was not death itself; it was the method and purpose of His death on the cross. How could the Messiah die and reign forever. There was certainly no seeing the cross for the unity of Gentiles and Jews (Ephesians 3:3-6). All this was kept hidden until Jesus Christ came to the earth. He would tell his disciples in detail of His death and resurrection.
Lift Up Your Heads – a take on the ‘Olivet Discourse’ (Luke 21:5-38) (newjerusalem.net.au)
Jesus says that they will see the Son of Man ‘from now on’ – ie. from that moment. It seems that on these two occasions Jesus is not speaking of an event, as much as a position of power and authority. In fact, He is making an unveiled reference here (and every time he calls himself ‘the Son of Man’) to Daniel 7
The True Easter Story (findingmywayinfo.wordpress.com)
Happy Resurrection Day! Christ IS Risen! (wrightlexi83.wordpress.com)
FFOZ TV Review: The Restoring the Kingdom (mymorningmeditations.com)
Jesus Is in Every Book of the Bible! (whatshotn.wordpress.com)
Morning Prayer 4.23.14, Wednesday in Easter Week (dailyoffice.org)

People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life

Posted on 2014/01/29 by Christadelphians

Water element of life. / Garden Tomb – sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In their search to live, people always had to take care to have enough to eat. Without food we can do not much. Water is the most important element of earth we need to survive. In the coming years that shall be the source where many countries shall fight for. But also the grain to make bread is going to become a problem with the global warming. Without bread people also seem not able to live.

About two thousand years ago there was a strange man, who could do special things and could talk like nobody else. Once that special preacher only had five loaves of bread and two fish but managed to feed a multitude of people. The Jews remembered that their fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and looked at this man who gave them bread from this world but where surprised there did not come an end of giving bread, like this time it also came out of heaven to eat. Jeshua, or Jesus like he is know better today, said unto them

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven.” (John 6:32)

Port Charlotte,FL.,8/25/2004–Volunteers from Bread of Life load food and supplies for homeless into a truck following Hurricane Charley. FEMA Photo/Andrea Booher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The people there where hungry like today we can still find many who are hungry and thirsty. Many of those who are in need of food are mostly concerned with their daily life and the natural elements around them. Not many of them are busy with the spiritual food.

We should know that just as natural food is vital to sustain physical health we do need even more spiritual food. Our being only exists because are brain is working. As soon as our brain does not function any more we are considered death. The region of our brain as such may be considered as the region of our being what we are. As soon as something goes wrong in the skull or a cerebral hemisphere is damaged, the person can become a total different being.

Mental training is very important for our brain. The food we do have to give it, is not as such material food. The brain-teasers, intellectual exercise is a necessary element for growing into the adult person who can think reasonably well. It does not only needs mathematics but also a daily intake of God’s word to ensure the growth of spiritual well being.

The Lord Jesus likened himself to life-giving bread:

“I am the bread of life…the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world…This is that bread which came down from heaven…he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever” (John 6:48, 51, 58).

It may sound strange to find something which came down from heaven, now not as manna or white flakes, but as somebody who could be seen, touched, bleed and have his bones broken. He spoke about his heavenly Father Who is a Spirit, can not be seen by man or they would die, has no flesh, blood or bones and Who is omnipotent. Somebody Who knows everything and can alow anything to exist or not to exist.

Egg, rye and multigrain bread loaves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those who heard that man telling the onlookers he was “the Bread of Life” and that their ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died, but that now they could see a Bread that truly came down out of heaven, made some cross. It looked madness when that man also said that anyone “eating this Bread will not die, ever”. But every decent man knew that we all shall die. So how could this man claim to be “the living Bread”! — “who came down out of heaven”?

What they did not know is that the worker’s son of Joseph and Miriam (Mary/Maria) was placed in a particular way in the womb of his mother. By the Force of God this man was born. It was decided in heaven by the Most High Creator that the young girl or virgin would be blessed with child, without intercourse. There he stood in the flesh and was speaking about presenting “bread” that came to the world so that people living in that world could eat and live of it and not die. He even saying that he is that bread that he will give to be his flesh, which he will give for the life of the world. At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves:

“How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?”

But Jesus didn’t give an inch.

“Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day.”

Only after he had died and was taken out of dead, his followers started to understand how the flesh of their rabbi is real food and how his blood is real drink. We to should come to understand that this man is the one who can get us to know his heavenly Father, who is the Only One God. By getting to know Christ Jesus and figuratively eating his flesh and drinking his blood we shall be able to enter into him and he into us. This becoming in Christ and like Christ shall not make us to be Christ like Jesus, who was in God was not God Himself, but stayed the son of God, Christ enabled us also to become the children of God and to be a son or a daughter of God.

In the same way that the fully alive Father sent Jeshua to the earth and Jesus lived because of Him, so the one who makes a meal of Jeshua (Jesus Christ) lives because of him and shall be able to come close to Jesus his Father, the Only One God. Jesus said such things while teaching in the meeting place in Capernaum. (see John 6:48-59)

These profound statements caused great consternation even among his followers, some of whom left, never to return. If only they had put aside their own prejudiced interpretation and listened to his simple explanation:

“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

The Son of God was the figurative bread from heaven because he spoke the words of God that were the source of spiritual strength and health.

To Abraham a great nation was promised and initially only they were on the lookout for a Saviour sent by their God. Jesus at first, was sent only to the Jews, a fact confirmed by his conversation with the Canaanite woman:

“She came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (Matthew 15:22-27).

Remarkably, this Gentile recognized what the children of Israel had failed to see, that here was the antitypical manna. Nothing daunted, she humbly begged for just a few crumbs to fall her way.

The world today also does not recognise that meal for our life. The heavenly bread is not known by many, but those who got to know it should share it with others.

“Bread of Life Shop” sno-Balls and food to go window shop, Jackson Avenue, New Orleans. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The world should get to know the One Who is behind all what we see around us. In the things we can see and feel we should get to see and feel the Master-hand. All the beauty of nature which science tries to come to understand is incredibly put together in a very smart way people often can not understand.

In seeing all that beauty and recognising what we all may have around us, though we do not deserve it, should make us think. Is it not special that we can have all those things. By which mercy or grace do we earn it?

From the Old Books we get to know that people have made a mess of those things which were given in their hands. god had His Own chosen people, but they often riposted against their Creator. He was so patient with them and so willing to even adapt certain regulations, not having Him the one who changed but having Him changing things for the good of the people. Many lost a good relationship with the Most High Divine Creator. In God’s mercy the Gentiles now have the opportunity to enter into covenant relationship with this God of Abraham through the blood of His son, the Nazarene Jew Jeshua, Jesus Christ or the Messiah.

The essential factor being knowledge of His Will and Purpose and a dedicated attempt at obedience:

“And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John. 17:3).

Yes it is important to come to know the Only True God. He also has given us many possibilities to get to know Him. There is His Word written down in the Bible or Holy Scriptures. He also has given His son who can bring us to him if we carefully listen to his words and follow his commandments. An unlimited supply of the bread of life is readily available to us but we must hungrily seek it in the word that has been miraculously preserved for our use. If we take the initiative, God immediately responds:

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4 :8)

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

People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions

People Seeking for God 4 Biblical terms

To be continued: People Seeking for God 6 Strategy

Please find also to read:

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Wonder Bread (ponderingtheheartofjesus.com)
Have you ever heard of “Wonder Bread?” For a time it had disappeared from grocery stores, but it is back and making many a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to feed many people! Good news! Today, though, a different kind of “Wonder Bread” that feeds many people comes to my mind. It is said in our Father’s word that there was a believer in Jesus by the name of Stephen. He was a man full of God’s grace and power and he did great “wonders” and miraculous signs among the people.
Jesus as the Bread of Life in the Book of John (the-scarlet-thread.com)
Early Christians were often accused of practicing cannibalism because they talked about eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood. But this refers to our communion with Him by faith. This is symbolized in the bread we eat at the Lord’s Supper.Not only is bread a staple, but Jesus spoke of Himself in this way, as “the bread that came down from Heaven”, to draw His hearers’ minds back to the wandering in the wilderness; to the manna God fed to His people.
In a Manger (sherreesblog.wordpress.com)
We know that Mary gave birth in the quiet, dark stable and, having no other option, laid the baby in the manger used to feed the animals every day.
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The word ‘manger’ is from the French word meaning ‘to eat.’ In French Bibles, the word for manger is ‘mangeoir’ or a place for eating. What do you put in a manger? Food.It occurs to me that Jesus is, on some level, food. John quoted some of Jesus’ thoughts on this in John 6. Jesus said, “I am the Bread of life.” John 6:35

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Just as we take in food to sustain physical life, we must take in Jesus to sustain spiritual life. Feeding on Jesus, our daily bread, we fuel a life that will never die, a life that grows more abundant and blessed with every passing day and year.
A Prayer A Day – ‘The Bread of Life’ Is All We Need… 1/23/2014 (dailyprayerprayertogod.wordpress.com)
When I was in my late teens I loved to make bread. I would make cinnamon bread and cheese bread or just plain bread from scratch. I loved to knead the dough and I loved the smell of the dough with the yeast and it always amazed me when I would set it aside covered with a clean towel and come back later to find that it had risen and expanded and it smelled so good. There is nothing like the smell of bread in the oven baking. So the Lord brought all these memories to my mind this morning as I was awaking from sleep. Bread. When we look up the word bread we find that bread is nourishment, bread is provision and bread is sustenance. Bread is food or sustenance; livelihood.
Desire for Bread (levelupgeneration.wordpress.com)
Food are so important to us that we plan for it in advance. Some people buy in the market their food for one week and some for two weeks. When we get our wages, normally every 15th and 30th of the month, the first thing in our list of priorities is food.
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When typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit Leyte, Eastern Samar and some other part of the region, we are all witness of how important food and water is. People there is saying, money is worthless. For them everything is worthless but food and water. People there are willing to kill or be killed for the sake food to eat and water to drink.
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Jesus is saying, “I am the bread of life”. We should be hungry for Him everyday. We should desire for Him more than anything else.
A Bologna Sandwich or the Bread of Life? (easttexasaglow.net)
Sometimes I wonder if the Church has fed the world a lot of baloney (properly spelled bologna). In our efforts to be relevant to the culture in which we live, we have packaged Jesus as if He were just so much lunchmeat. We have dressed Him up, tried to make Him look cute, and diluted the Gospel. Sometimes we have even added processed cheese to enhance our presentation of Truth!
How many calories of the bread of Life are you consuming… (thewearypilgrim.typepad.com)
You see if we really want to feed on the bread of life, this Manna…first we need to pull out our maps and see how far we moved out of Egypt. Or have we just navigated lines across the page in our bibles, and in our minds convinced ourselves we’ve travelled a long way…when in reality we haven’t moved an inch.
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How much of my life, am I willing to sell? Do I really want the bread of life to be my daily diet…or is the biggest portion of my diet going to come from Egypt…while I get take out, manna, when I feel desperate. Maybe I’ll feel a twinge of guilt because the wardrobe I’ve dressed my life in won’t fit anymore…and I’ll try the God diet for a few weeks just to get them to fit again.
Jesus the bread of life (mommaandgirls13blog.wordpress.com)
Sometimes you read the bible feeling like you just read a foreign language other times it’s like woah, And just stunned all Gods done for us past present future.
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And feed on what’s eternal, not worldly!! Worldly pleasures only last a short lifetime if even that. We need to focus on our heavenly Fathers kingdom, out future home, our eternal home.
Bread of life (viktoriaveigas.wordpress.com)
My child, I sense your hunger to grow. No one who seeks My presence leaves empty. I will feed you, body, soul, and spirit. Come, sit at My feet daily, and we will share together. I’ve baked an abundance of delicious bread you’ve never even tasted. My manna is not of this world, but once you eat it, you will never be hungry again. I will fill you up with Myself.
The True Bread (cbcirwin.wordpress.com)
Jesus provided physical food supernaturally for those who were following Him and listening to His teachings.
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Jesus is the true bread. He told the crowd, “I am the Bread of Life.” (6:35) But, it requires spiritual eyes to see Him, the hidden manna. To those at Pergamus, Jesus offers the hidden manna to he who overcomes. And unlike the manna in the wilderness, His sustaining power will never cease. For all who come to Him will never hunger and he who believes in Him shall never thirst. (v. 35)

People Seeking for God 4 Biblical terms

Posted on 2014/01/28 by Christadelphians

In the previous chapter we mentioned how in the 4th century the leaders of the Roman Empire tried to bring the followers of Christ at the same foot again as the gentiles or heathen citizens of the empire. We showed how the church-fathers tried to bring a smoke-curtain and presented their flock with a new sort of terms, which were not really Biblical terms. As such you no-where in the Bible shall find the title ‘Trinity‘ nor ‘Mother of God‘ etc..

We should try to come to see the Biblical terms and what they do imply. For example “to seek” or “seeking” is not to just look around casually, it implies a deep desire for the object of your pursuit.

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

In history, already before the birth of Christ, many people wanted to distract those around them from focusing on connecting with God. In the Bible lots of time we find examples how others managed to get followers of God to go into another direction. Even when God had provided them with liberation or got them out some trouble they soon forgot it and went the old way again, with sometimes even honouring other gods.

Today we do have more distractions to get us away from God. Today there are not only physical people in our presence who can be distracting, people in the cyber world can be even more distracting. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social networking sites are awesome at staying connected, but when you are dedicated to seeking God consistently, these sites can suck your focus away from that. They are the new deceivers. Deception by them is very easy.

In case we do look for God and really do want to find Him, we should be aware of all hoodwinks.

Try to use a physical Bible for your quiet time instead of the Bible apps available on your phone or IPad, which also have apps for social sites that pull you away from seeking God.

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

People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions

To be continued:

People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life

People Seeking for God 6 Strategy

Please find also to read:

Nazarene Commentary Luke 2:1-7 – A Firstborn’s Birth In Bethlehem
Raising digression
Politics and power first priority #1 The early days of Christianity Deities and original Christian faith
Politics and power first priority #2 church fathers pre-Nicene terms and Nicene Creed
Politics and power first priority #3 Elevation of Mary and the Holy Spirit
I Only hope we find God again before it is too late !
The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
How to look for and how to handle the Truth
Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus

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English: map of Treasure Island, from the firs...

Map of Treasure Island, from the first German edition (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Additional reading:

Treasure Hunters
Imagine that you were just handed a treasure map that leads to Blackbeard’s Lost Treasure. Now take that map, put it in a frame, and hang it on the wall for all to see. Makes sense right? Of course not! You would take that map, follow it exactly step by step. No questions asked because you knew that this map would lead to Blackbeard’s Lost Treasure. Just like any quest , along the way you may encounter obstacles, people may call you names for following the map, and you might even want to give because it is just to hard. But instead of giving up, you continue with the treasure hunt and find it, and knowing all the trials and hardships you had to endure just makes finding the treasure even sweeter. Sounds like the plot to a movie right, but it’s not. It’s the the story of our lives.
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The Bible was written by man but inspired by God to teach us and instruct us in our everyday lives ( 2 Timothy 3:16) but if we just sit it on a shelf and let it collect dust, how are we suppose to know what it is God whats us to do? If we don’t use God’s map and seek Him out, it is us that is missing out. God’s love is our treasure and just like any other treasure that is buried, it hasn’t moved. It is in the same place it has been for years but we must seek it in order to have that treasure and just like any other treasure, it is meant to be shared with everybody, so they can inherit God’s kingdom and feel this unending love of God. Lets start using our maps and seek God not just when we are going through struggles and storms, but in our everyday life.
Seek God First
Lately I have been trying to go to God and the scriptures more. Of course one verse that comes to mind quickly is the one I hear people say often in which God knows the plans he has for you.
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God has a plan for those who follow after Him, who truly seek Him, just like he had a plan for the people of Jerusalem. I don’t know where I am going from here, but I know I believe in God and want to follow after Him. I don’t know where I am going, but I know I have to seek God and put Him first in my life. I know this because of the context of this scripture.
So what does it take to be a true Christian? You might want to share this important message.
Unfortunately over time, the word “Christian” has lost a great deal of its importance and is often used of someone who is religious or has high moral values but who may or may not be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Many people who do not believe and trust in Jesus Christ consider themselves Christians simply because they go to church or they live in a “Christian” nation.

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What Are You Seeking? (makinglifemagnificent.com)
Life can be so busy and these days we have a lot of background noise pulling our attention away from God. These things are not necessarily bad things, they are parts of our everyday life: work, family, and school. But remember God wants to be #1 in your life! So He reminds us throughout scripture to push all those “life distractions” aside and focus only on Him. Remember seeking isn’t just looking, it’s also desiring. Do you desire God enough “to hunt for or go in pursuit” of Him?
The Egocentric Church (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
The influence of the modern egocentric church may be found in the popular fad of minimizing preaching to pursue highly sensual worship experiences with God. The egocentric church does not find the study of Scriptures emotionally appealing. Such church-attenders may believe all the Bible says about Jesus is true without reading it for themselves. They ask, “What would Jesus do?” and they answer “Jesus would do what I feel is right.” They think that the Bible says what they believe it should say and act as if it were true. They refuse to be confused by the facts.
Strengthen Your Relationship With God In A Church In Allen, TX (ourdailychurchblog.wordpress.com)
Here are a few things to look for when searching for a church to strengthen your relationship with God.
Why Read The Bible? (feminarian.wordpress.com)
The sheer size of the book is rather daunting. (Maybe if the individual books of the Bible were released one by one like the Harry Potter series… or if there was a collector’s series that we could trade like Hockey cards…)
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Knowing the Bible means you won’t be left in the dark when people talk about the Jesus symbolism in the Batman series or offer the character Aslan from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a refreshing image of God.You may be surprised how many authors, directors, songwriters, screenwriters and playwrights draw upon biblical imagery and stories in their own works, and how interesting it can be to enter the conversation. The Bible still is a big deal out there, and it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon.
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So much of our time and energy is given to or taken by industries and corporations that have their own best interests in mind. They too tell us stories about what will make us happy and how to make the world a better place. And they’re usually incorrect.

What if we let the biblical story enter the competition?
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Choose Your Own Distraction
It’s like the Internet is one big “Choose Your Own Distraction” book, but we’ve forgotten that we actually have to make choices to enjoy it’s design. Instead we’re reading straight through from cover to cover.
How to Avoid Being Led Astray by False Shepherds (924jeremiah.wordpress.com)
The Church today is a very dangerous place. False shepherds, pastors, teachers, prophets, apostles, and healers abound. They are all after You: a single sheep in God’s flock. They want your worship. They want your money. They want your loyalty. They are going to use you for their own selfish gain, and when they’re done using you, they will throw you away.
{In this article we can find many false teachings which are presented as Biblical teachings. This also shed light how easy it is to become entangled by the dogma’s created by many churches, which blind lots of people.}
Made in God’s Image, the Trinity, and Free Will (icanhearvoicesinmyhead.wordpress.com)
The topic of ‘The Trinity’ or ‘Three Person God’ had always intrigued me. I have never heard anyone giving me an explanation for it that I could understand.
Uncle Sugar as Religious Bogeyman (religiondispatches.org)
Huckabee isn’t the first Republican called to answer for his endorsement of biblical patriarchy. Just this week, New Mexico Republican Steve Pearce, in a new book, writes that “the wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice” and “the husband’s part is to show up during the times of deep stress, take the leadership role and be accountable for the outcome, blaming no one else.”
The Bible is a Historical and Theological Primary Source (winnowmethis.wordpress.com)
Drena’s comment lends credence to my own supposition that Christian educational institutions have deviated from Christian orthodoxy and are embracing the “emergent movement”. It is also my viewpoint that rather than turning directly to the Bible to substantiate doctrine, Christian educators are turning to church history and movements to educate and articulate Christian doctrine, without considering that a movement or doctrine may not even stand up to Biblical scrutiny. As such the students coming out of these educational institutions are ill equipped to argue true Biblically based theology.

Focus on outward appearances

Posted on 2013/12/09 by Marcus Ampe

Paying so much attention and loving so much setting great store by outward appearances of the Christmas holiday season you may wonder how much those people screaming about the de-consecration did not themselves are part of the secularization.

One of the best things about the month of December is not the beginning of the winter season or furrylittlegnome’s birthday but the smell of Christmas trees! Originating in Germany in the sixteenth century, the tradition of a Christmas tree has evolved over time.

A Christmas tree farm in Iowa, United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

writes Sophia Petrillo from The Golden Girls in O Christmas Tree where she looks at the American common Christmas trees Balsam Firs and Fraser Firs – the latter found in the Eastern United States.

On December the 8th she wrote:

While reading the news online this morning, furrylittlegnome learned some interesting facts. While 88% of Americans will have a Christmas tree in their homes this season, 83% of these Christmas trees will be artificial or “fake”!

What proves it has nothing to do any more with having a sent in the closed homes, or to have some natural green in the season where there are not many blossoming flowers.

Some bloggers apologies already for being so, so late not having set up their Christmas decorations

I’m aware that I should have been in full Christmas mode in September when the first decorations hit the stores. Beach balls to Christmas balls, in the blink of an eye… {Holidaisical}

the sexy santa assistants were there to take a photo of you in front of the xmas tree or you could just ask them to take a photo with you and pretend that your girlfriend is a sexy santa assistant See where this picture was taken. [?] (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Langan, currently Business Services Director at the Penn Emblem Company, does find his joy in the music, which we do have to hear everywhere all the time on the streets, shopping malls, train stations and airports. think about those people who have to work in those places for many hours and have to hear those songs over and over again, many days after each other.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is the music.

writes John Langan

I love the old standards by Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, and the newer standards by The Killers and The Pogues (if you don’t know the raw passion of “Fairytale of New York”, you are missing out). So many new songs come out this time of year, a lot for free through iTunes and other places on the World Wide Web. A few are great (“Christmas, Baby” by G Love, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by Barenaked Ladies), and some are so stunningly awful they defy description. Each year I add to my already great playlist of holiday music… and just play it all day. Love, love, love! {Holidaisical}

He does not want any complaints:

Life is too short, my friends. There is no reason to be angry in a season dedicated to peace and love… or any other time. So Uncle Ornery… don’t worry about gifts this year. Be cheerful instead, and that can be everyone’s gift. And Jackwagon… Shop online! And Good Catholic… I feel your pain because I used to be you. I use to go to church every week, now I don’t for whatever reason. So excuse me this year if I sit in the wrong seat, or say the wrong thing. Just like everyone else, I’m just doing my best.

Southern Virginia farm of Christmas trees of various types. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The transplanted American, living in Australia for the last 30 year, Ardysez in Family and “the Christmas tree farm“, is aware that the traditions of Christmas are many and varied, depending on the cultural heritage and family practice. It are those family practices which may give the love for a sort of celebration which is placed in the memory form childhood. Her parents and grandparents started the Corsi Tree Farm in southern Ohio.

Thousands of people in the Cincinnati area will travel to the Corsi Tree Farm this year, not just to cut their own Christmas tree, but to have an old fashioned experience with country music, animals and hospitality. It is probably a tradition that will disappear one day, but for now it is alive and well in Hamersville, Ohio. {the Christmas tree farm}

Because some people do have multiple Christmas trees, their business perhaps could be blooming very well. Marie Haigh who lives in Pottstown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has 5 to be exact. Her first memory of picking out a Christmas tree was walking outside in our front yard and picking an evergreen tree. Her daughter’s memory will be similar.
Her reason for so many trees:

I just love Christmas trees. I love decorating them. I love looking at them. It is the best Christmas decoration. I would be happy if it were the only Christmas decoration we had. {Sunday Snapshots (of Christmas trees)}

Like several people the writer of Sunday Snapshots (of Christmas Decorations), who learned to knit from her mother-in-law a few years ago, hates decking for Christmas when it is frigid outside. Her blog features her knitting designs, current knitting WIPS (works in progress) whether or not they are designed by her and even failed projects. Occasionally, she takes a much needed break from knitting, such as after the birth of her daughter. During such times, her blog focuses on her family along with the hobby that has her current attention, bouncing between sewing, gardening, card-making and cooking. She lets her child make some ornaments out of Crayola model magic clay, which gives something creative to this whole set of putting up the tree where she as mother also shows her decorating talent. Her daughter Elly went to a “fairy garden class” and made some beautiful “Angel garden”. At the end of the season this daughter was upset that her parents put away the Christmas decorations. {Missing Santa}

A Christmas Tree at Home (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whilst she and her daughter may have no lack of inspiration others may get such a lack of inspiration it is driving them bonkers. A runner that loves to bake, her runs have been out of obligation, not bad but certainly not awesome. To cap off her great day, of an 1:30 minute run she went to pick out her very first Christmas tree. {Inspiration for 500 Alex…}

Heidi a caffeine-aholic, living in Western Colorado, also shows the roots of her loving the Christmas tree.

To say my Mom loved Christmas and kept it well was an understatement. She baked jillions of cookies, decorated multiple trees and hosted a holiday open house with tons of different appetizers, cookies, Scandinavian delicacies, and drinks. She loved to show off her decorated home and culinary skills, and particularly loved that people she invited brought others with them and that the parish priest would stay until the very end of the party and take home leftovers. She was in the middle of planning her holiday party when her recurring cancer landed her in the hospital. She died Christmas Eve. I like to think she went to party with the angels for Christmas, and they took her at that moment to make Christmas extra special for her.

Nice to hear that this sad moment in her life on such a special day did not ruin her “Christmas”. Understandably she may get a bit melancholy,

but mostly, I try to decorate, cook and entertain in the way Mom would have. I celebrate Christmas and celebrate Mom.

Mom had a shed on her New Mexico property she called the Christmas Shed–packed to the rafters with all manner of Christmas decor. I brought a few things home with me, a tub marked Norwegian Tree, and a few of her treasured trolls. Mom’s mom was Norwegian, and Mom identified with all thing Norwegian. The tub had ornaments, linens, and candlesticks painted as a Norwegian man and woman in their traditional finery.

Here again we see that figures come in the Christmas story which have nothing to do with the birth of Christ nor with the place of his birth. I wonder what “Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Union, ManU, The Masters, “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments for boys and girls, dog stuff, from {Holidaisical}, beads and garland have to do with the birth of Christ in that “good tree” .

Trolls are beloved by Scandinavian people and according to Mom, these must be complimented on their beauty and charm. If you dare speak of them in terms of ugly, homely or scary, they will play pranks on you at night. {Celebrating Christmas, Celebrating Mom}

She has “A snowman tree”, “A kitchen tree” with tiny kitchen utensils and cookie cutters, “A silver and gold tree with spun glass ornaments” and the “big tree” with ornaments from her childhood and those her family has collected over the years.

It’s traditional to use an ornament as a decoration on a wrapped gift.

I also set out a pair of Christmas plates, also painted by Mom. The Santa one has Mom and Dad’s names as well as the names of their friends of the time, on Santa’s list.

Mulled wine steeping (Swedish glögg)

I would say on cold day a Glühwine or Mulled wine, vin chaud (“hot wine”), [In Italy: vin brulé (“burnt wine”)] the spicy warm wine with cloves, grated nutmeg, and cinnamon or mace, orange or mandarins, elderberries, blueberries, cherries, red and black currants and blackberries, may not be lacking. In the Netherlands, the drink is known as bisschopswijn (literally “bishop’s wine”). Bisschopswijn is drunk during the Sinterklaas holidays. It uses oranges instead of lemons as an ingredient.
When Madeira wine and Port wine are used we call it Douro, or like in the Minho Provinces “vinho quente“. In Canada they call it also Caribou, thought my family in law living there still call it “bisschopswijn”.

An other “warming up drink” may be the traditional Scandinavian spirit Aquavit, distilled from potatoes and spiced with caraway, dill, cardamom, and anise.

It pairs nicely with fish and is usually served in tiny glasses and meant to be sipped and savored.

For us this is the time, after a good big walk, to say “Skoal!”

Jeffrey Bing who values faith, family, fun, football, and following sports of all types, for the past 21 years, Christmas morning was, without fail, about early morning wake ups with the kids to see what Santa had brought for them.

From “Baby Hannah” walking behind her big truck at 7 months of age, to Alec and Rebecca each being equally (if not more) interested in what Santa brought to their twin than to them in their 11th month of age first Christmas, Christmas morning has been about joy, discovery, and sharing.

Once again we can see that this family had their traditional “Christmas Santa” event. But the “Santa” was not standing for “Sanct” or “Holy“. It was all about a Nordic figure and nothing with a Palestine or coloured man, whose name was Jeshua, born in the tribe of king David, who became better known in the West as Jesus Christ or Issou, “Ya Zeus” (“Yea-Zeus”), meaning “Hail Zeus”.

Though many may say, like bill:

Christmas is not about the toys, the trinkets, and the packages. Christmas is about love, family, friends, and sharing. And Christmas, for a certain 44 year old man in middle America, is about joyful memories. Today’s will add to that collection.

but always in those memories, on the different blogs, we nowhere find a reference of Christ Jesus, which they call the reason of the season. Is it than not strange they not mention this Jewish man more? How does it come that they may forget the “most important reason of the season” and would not talk more about this man had done for humanity? Jeffrey Bing his blog was one of the exceptions where I could find something written on Christian values and on Jesus, being the Christ or Messiah, having given his life for us.

So should we not wonder ho much the Christians absorbed from other religions or pagan practices and got carried away from their real ‘reason of the season’?

Bill recognises:

Maybe being absorbent opens us up to taking in new vital nutrients. Take all of this with a grain of salt, as its coming from a guy who hasn’t missed too many meals, even back in the day. I’ve got the old videos to prove it.. {Absorption rate}

Christmas is about tradition, and for the Bings, tradition has included full days of family time and not leaving the company of the nest on the magical day.

But the times, they are a changin’, and change brings new traditions, and new people, into our lives. And new can be good, even if it takes red tie giving sweeties away on Christmas day, to spend time with sweeties of their own.

Red ties, red eyes, red sweaters, red letters. Amen. Change can be a good thing. {Red Letter Day}

Would it all not be better to come to the core of the business and celebrate the holy day Jesus himself gave? Namely the 14th of Nisan, the day also god asks us to remember the exodus of His People and to remember the New Covenant. there we can see the red, not from a Father Christmas, the figure Coca-Cola created with the red coat, but the red from the blood of the man Jesus, who offered himself for the sins of many.

in today’s world much of the original meaning of Christmas has been lost in the hustle and bustle of this most wonderful time of the year.

writes a Texan (girl?) on “Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.” — Margaret Thatcher

it is frankly a little disheartening to me to think that one can celebrate Christmas without mentioning Christ at all.

she continues and looks at Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to earth as a little baby in order to live a perfect life,

and die on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sin in order that our relationship with God might be restored and we can spend eternity with him.

But soon she also goes into talking about traditions, believing

it is very important to keep Christ in many of our Christmas traditions so that we can remember what He has done for us – but some things we do, we do for FUN – and that is perfectly okay too. Jesus did say, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.“

She found it fun to identify which ones were, a part of her growing up, and which ones she wants to continue in her new family. Then people come to see that the Christmas traditions may be totally different, from one family to an other. Then they either have to go for one or the other tradition or have to make a blend. that is what they think, but nobody has the courage to really do thorough research and come to the conclusions according the Holy Scriptures and commandments of God. Most Christians do want to keep the tradition. That is the difficult part the apostles Paul and John were talking about when they wrote about Jesus his words of being part of the world, being in or outside this world and choosing for the World of God.

Those in the world want to keep on to those fun Traditions, and that is what makes them not so different form the gentiles or non-Christians. they are mostly concerned about:

Christmas Trees

Gift Giving

Stockings

Caroling

Mistletoe

Santa Claus

Gingerbread Houses

Christmas Cards

Advent Calendars

Christmas Eve Candlelight Services

Traditions very dear to many people their heart.

Clifton Mill in Clifton, Ohio is the site of this Christmas display with over 3.5 million lights. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But should our heart not be with Christ Jesus, and should our thoughts not be filled with his teachings? Did Jesus not enough explain it has nothing to do with outside appearances, but has all to do with the inside of the hearth and the following of God His commandments and not following the world.

Who do you want to follow? Do you want to follow traditions, because you are ashamed that people would give some nasty remarks, because you do not join in in the festivities to show off with the ‘nicest tree’, the most ‘Christmas decorations’ in the street and do not join the Christmas parties with lots of “heavy music”?

Preceding article: The imaginational war against Christmas

Additional reading:

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O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! (how2makelemonade.wordpress.com)
One of my favorite parts of Christmas is decorating for the season. Christmas decorations just make a house look so warm and cozy.
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My style for Christmas is pretty traditional. I like the traditional Christmas colors, red, white, and green. Plus many of my ornaments look vintage, but most of them came from Target. The vintage ornaments give the tree a classic feel that doesn’t look like some fancy designer did it.
Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches (charlieandmummy.wordpress.com)
Normally by this time of year I am well and truly into the Christmas spirit organising the concerts at school and performing with band. It feels strange to not be out playing carols and concerts, but good to not be dashing around like a crazy lady. Instead we will be enjoying every little detail of Charlies first Christmas.
O Christmas Tree (lillian888.wordpress.com) reblogged from> O Christmas Tree on which I like the photo’s, and where you can find a decorated ladder, strings of lights and a very tall ceiling.
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Here are some truly fantastic Christmas trees. Remember how I was thinking this might be the year I create a theme tree? These photos are full of inspiration!
On My Christmas Non Tree Tree (chasingtheblackwood.wordpress.com) you may find an other ladder tree, where scented candles shall have to bring in “happy Christmas scents”.
Hunting for a Christmas Tree (magnuspittmanblog.wordpress.com)
After we found our perfect tree one of the workers cut it down for us and then we got a ride back down to the farm entrance with our tree! We had a busy rest of the weekend so the tree is not decorated yet, but stay tuned for more photos when we are able to put it up!
Oh Christmas tree, MY Christmas tree (longwalksanddarkchocolate.com)
With all of the ornaments laid out on the kitchen table this year, I made a decision. I was going to split them and ship them!
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What was in it for me? To be honest, as I packed all the cute, kiddie looking ornaments, I was dreaming of a tree similar to one I’d encountered on Pinterest, with a woodland animal theme. You might think I’m not sentimental enough and that I should be pining for the ornament that a 6yr old made in art class. Well, I did keep a couple that were made by their own little hands. However, not for my tree; just for the memory. I much prefer the memories of spending time with them and our conversations and laughter to things.
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We can’t dwell on the past and the way things were. Things and people change and we can’t allow ourselves to get bogged down in the yesterdays and how things used to be. We grow, people pass on, family members move, more members are added.
Christmas Traditions: Ornaments (ourlittlefamilyadventure.wordpress.com)
Growing up, my brother and I always received a new Christmas tree ornament. It was either a beautiful handmade glass ornament or something to commemorate a special event that year. It was something to be cherished and saved to be hang up the following year. My mother saved all these ornaments. When I was married, she gave me a collection of Christmas tree ornaments for my new family tree. It was collection of cherished Christmas memories. There was a Baby’s First Christmas ornament from the day I was born, ornaments from places we’d been, and sports I’d played in school. It was all right there in the box. It’s a great tradition I’m happy to pass down to my children.
Christmas Tree (fallinginchocolat.wordpress.com)
In Belgium we have this holiday called ‘Sinterklaas’ on the 6th of december, and tradition is that in the weekend after this holiday we go buy our christmas tree and decorate it. So Today is the 7th and a saturday which means we went to buy our tree. I must say every year me and my mom have some debate over the tree ( bigger ! no smaller ! ) and how to decorate it.
ADVENTageous for Dec 8: Christmas Tree (moredrunkordrunker.wordpress.com)
Not many in Great Britain held the tradition of a decorated tree until a print featured Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (both of German heritage) standing near their Christmas tree.Ukrainians decorate their Christmas trees with an artificial spider, as a Ukrainian legend holds that tinsel originated when a spider wove cobwebs all over a Christmas tree at night and the rising sun turned it to silver. Finding a real spider web on Christmas morning is considered good luck, not a reason to immediately call an exterminator.
Worshipping created things. The outward acts of their idolatry. Idolatry is Forbidden. (proclaimingthegospelofchrist.wordpress.com)
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. (Acts 17:29)
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It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth

Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God

Posted on 2013/11/12 by Christadelphians

Lazy Christians

English: Faithful praying towards Makkah; Umay...

Faithful praying towards Makkah; Umayyad Mosque, Damascus. (Foto Antonio Milena/ABr – hor – 08) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Having to reply to some blogs on the saying that “Christians are to lazy to study and have no zeal for the deep things of God. I fear that they will not stand against the wiles of the devil as we enter into the tribulation. People will rush to Islam because it makes more sense the trinity is nonsense created 350 years after Christ from Greek and Roman Pagon tradition…” on a.o Shining light blog defies scripture! Where has the Lord God gone? and some other blogs pointing at the “stupidity of Christians” who consider Jesus to be a son of God, we would like to publish some of answer here too.

To consider Christadelphians and other Bible Students lazy to study and having no zeal for the deep things of God we would call unbecoming, because it are people who have no paid ministers, do their own searching and Bible study, organise themselves their own meetings and ecclesiae (‘churches’).

According to us it is inappropriate language to insult those who try after their working hours, to earn their living, to daily read in the Holy Scriptures and to regularly come together to discuss the Daily Bible Readings. Uncalled-for reproach we would like to defend all those who sincerely take a lot of their time, daily, to study the Bible and to look into the spiritual things of life.

Preaching Christians against not witnessing Muslims

The last hundred years in the so called civilised countries the citizens could find all sorts of Christians preaching at their doors or in public places. How many people are you able to encounter who never had a Jehovah Witness, a Mormon, a Pentecostal or Evangelical Christian at their doorstep? Those so called lazy Christians dared to go out and speak in the language of the people and present the words of God in the language of the people. How many Muslims offer the Word of God in the language of the people? How many people translated the Quran/Quoran/kor-Ahn/Koran in the many world languages? Would you describe all those scribes who tried to get the Word of God made clear in the tongue of the many nations as lazy Christians?

Muslims and Christians united for Egypt by Carlos Latuff. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many Christians do go out in the world and are active on many platforms, internet sites to proclaim the Word of God. Can this also be said about the Muslims? Most what people hear form Muslims is the hate bearing words against Christians and non-believers. But where is their call to the love of God and the love for the neighbour? How many Muslims actively show that brotherly love God wants his creation to show? How many People did you already got on your doorstep or visit you at home to share their Islamic faith with you?

On the streets, on the internet, in special places open to every one, we can find more Christians, proclaiming the Word of God and trying to get people becoming a God loving person, than we can find Muslims doing that.

Thinking all Christians and all Muslims are of the same lot

Looking at certain reactions on Islamic websites we can not fail to see that many Muslims do have a wrong idea about ‘all’ Christians, thinking that all Christians are the same and do think the same. Many of the Muslims put every Christian in the same box, like we can find many Christians who put all Muslims also in the same category.

Like many Christians do not know that there are many other non-trinitarian Christians than the Jehovah Witnesses, the majority of the Muslims consider all Christians as Trinitarians and blasphemous Islam haters.
Both would better go over those different people with a fine-tooth comb.

An earth-father or patriarch

Many Muslims also do not seem to understand the sonship of Christ, though themselves consider Avram/Abraham as their patriarch or “aartsvader” = “earthy father” or “stamvader” = “tribe father” or “father of their tribe” the imam of their nation.

“And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with certain commands, which he fulfilled: He said: “I will make thee an Imam to the Nations.” He pleaded: “And also [Imams] from my offspring!” He answered: “But My Promise is not within the reach of evil-doers.”” (Koran 2:124 Yusufali)

Meaning of Islam

Harper’s Muslims and Christians (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several Muslims, Christians and irreligious people forget what “Islam” really means. The Jews and Christians have and speak about the “Shalom” or the “Peace be with you”.

That peace, purity, submission and obedience brings “Islam” from the Arabic root of “Salema”. As such “Islam” means “submission to the Will of God and obedience to His Law“. It is considering oneself part of the Peace of the Creator God. Calling yourself as part of the ‘Islam’ would mean you are willing to give yourself to the Creator God, Allah, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

Everything and every phenomenon in the world other than man is administered totally by God-made laws, ie. they should be obedient to God and submissive to his laws. Those that are in a ‘State of Islam’ are persons who have given their inner being to the Most High, willing to give their ‘body and soul’ in submission to that God. We all may Man posses qualities of intelligence and choice, but they all are their and we only can exist because God allows us to exist. We as creations of the One God are all invited by the Creator to submit to the good Will of Him, Allah/God and to obey His law, ie, become a God fearing and God loving being. For the Jews this is becoming a good Jew, for Christians this would mean to accept also the one send by God and to follow the teachings of that Nazarene Jew Jeshua/Jesus Christ. For the followers of the teacher Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim it would mean to become a Muslim or Bahá’í.

According to the Bahá’í, Jewish and Christian teachings the human purpose is to learn to know and love God through such methods as prayer, reflection, and being of service to humanity.

The word Allah in the Arabic language means God, or more accurately, The One and Only Eternal God, Creator of the Universe, Lord of all lords, King of all kings, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. The word Allah to mean God is also used by Arabic speaking Jews and Christians.

Already from the early ages there were people who considered that there was /is a Most High Supreme Being that created everything around us. Through the ages there have always been faithful people who wanted only to honour that Almighty God of gods. There where also people who wanted to love that God or Allah so deeply they also wanted to know who He was and what His Name was. For that reason Allah let his beloved people know Who He was and how he could be named.

(1) And יהוה {Jehovah} said to Mosheh, “Now see what I do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he is going to let them go, and with a strong hand he is going to drive them out of his land.” (2) And Elohim spoke to Mosheh and said to him, “I am יהוה {Jehovah}. (3) “And I appeared to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Yaʽaqoḇ, as Ěl Shaddai. And by My Name, יהוה {Jehovah}, was I not known to them? (4) “And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Kenaʽan, the land of their sojournings, in which they have sojourned. (5) “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Yisra’ĕl whom the Mitsrites are enslaving, and I have remembered My covenant. (6) “Say, therefore, to the children of Yisra’ĕl, ‘I am יהוה {Jehovah}, and I shall bring you out from under the burdens of the Mitsrites, and shall deliver you from their enslaving, and shall redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments, (7) and shall take you as My people, and I shall be your Elohim. And you shall know that I am יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim who is bringing you out from under the burdens of the Mitsrites. (8) ‘And I shall bring you into the land which I swore to give to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Yaʽaqoḇ?, to give it to you as an inheritance. I am יהוה {Jehovah}.’ ” (Exodus 6:1-8 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (5) Thus said the Ěl, יהוה {Jehovah}, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it: (6) “I, יהוה {Jehovah}, have called You in righteousness, and I take hold of Your hand and guard You, and give You for a covenant to a people, for a light to the gentiles, (7) to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. (8) “I am יהוה {Jehovah}, that is My Name, and My esteem I do not give to another, nor My praise to idols. (9) “See, the former predictions have come, and new ones I am declaring; before they spring forth I let you hear them.”” (Isaiah 42:5-9 The Scriptures 1998+)

Those who love and recognise יהוה {Jehovah} should all be united in the same love as their Creator. Submission to the good Will of God, together with obedience to His beneficial Law, ie, would be becoming a child of God or belong to the People of God, either by what the world would call becoming a Jew or becoming a Christian or like the followers of ‘their prophet Muhhamad’ would call themselves to be a Muslim, as the best safeguard for man’s peace and harmony.

Worshipping prophet not followed

Quran, Mus’haf_Al_Tajweed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many Muslims do not want to believe that Christians would worship the One and only one God, Creator of heaven and earth and everything around יהוה. But lots of Christians consider Abraham also as their patriarch who witnessed the Wisdom of God and who received the promise for all God loving people, first given to the Judean People of God, afterwards also to gentiles, Christians and Muslims.

“Were ye witnesses when death appeared before Jacob? Behold, he said to his sons: “What will ye worship after me?” They said: “We shall worship Thy god and the god of thy fathers, of Abraham, Isma’il and Isaac,- the one [True] Allah: To Him we bow [in Islam].”” (Koran 2:133 Yusufali)

“Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in Faith, and bowed his will to Allah’s [Which is Islam], and he joined not gods with Allah.” (Koran 3:67 Yusufali)

Chosen people and their faith

Christians do believe in God (in several languages a title also said like in Arabic: Allah) and in the ones He had chosen, like Abraham, Ishmael, the other patriarch Jacob and many other prophets whose books we now have assembled in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible.

“Say: “We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in [the Books] given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them, and to Allah do we bow our will [in Islam].”” (Koran 3:84 Yusufali)

Son of a mother

First of all there is the sonship, like we can find Jeshua, the prophet Jesus to be the son of Miriam (Miryam, Mary/Maria)

Koran 2:87 We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of Apostles; We gave Jesus the son of Mary Clear Signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit. Is it that whenever there comes to you an Apostle with what ye yourselves desire not, ye are puffed up with pride? — ome ye call impostors, and others ye slay!

Koran 2:87 And most certainly We gave Musa the Book and We sent messengers after him one after another; and We gave Isa (Issou/Jeshua/Jesus/Jezus/Chesu), the son of Marium (Miriam/Mary/Maria), clear arguments and strengthened him with the holy spirit, What! whenever then a messenger came to you with that which your souls did not desire, you were insolent so you called some liars and some you slew.

Koran 2:253 Those apostles we endowed with gifts, some above others: To one of them Allah spoke; others He raised to degrees of honor; to Jesus the son of Mary we gave Clear Signs, and strengthened him with the holy spirit. If Allah had so willed, succeeding generations would not have fought among each other, after Clear Signs had come to them, but they chose to wrangle, some believing and others rejecting. If Allah had so willed, they would not have fought each other; but Allah fulfilleth His plan.

Son of a father

Many people in the world do receive sons and call themselves children of that father, but we also find other children who consider the previous prophets their father. Like for us Christians the prophet Abraham is our patriarch and father.

About the Nazarene Jewish man Jeshua, who fitted the Plan of God, it is also know that many say he is the son of Allah, the Only One God:

Koran 2:116 They say: “Allah hath begotten a son”: Glory be to Him. — ay, to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and on earth: Everything renders worship to Him.

Koran 3:47 She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?” He said: “Even so: Allah createth what He willeth: When He hath decreed a Plan, He but saith to it, ’Be,’ and it is!”

A son to Allah

Allah has taken to himself a son which we consider to be the son of man in the line of Adam and many prophets:

Matthew 1:1 this is the genealogy of Jeshua/Yeshua the Messiah, son of David, son of Avraham/Abraham:

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1 KJ21)

The Bible with the Gospels telling the world about the son of David and son of God (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Matthew’s first gospel tells us about an angel of Adonai who appeared to Yosef (Joseph), son of David, not to be afraid to take Miryam as his wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach haKodesh, the Power of God or Holy Spirit. That what she bears does come directly from the Most High Elohim and the angels tell Joseph and Mary that she will give birth to a son, which they have to name Jeshua/Yeshua/Yashua/Yahushua, (which means ‘Jehovah saves’). It is because this son fostered by this two common people will save his people from their sins.

The virgin conceived and brought a son on this earth, and they called him ‘immanu el” or “God with us”

“20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take unto you Mary your wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Yashua: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord [Yahweh] by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had invited him, and took unto him his wife: 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Yashua.” (Matthew 1:20-25 KJBPNV)

When the son of those God fearing people grew up, he learned everything from them. (In case he would have been God he could not learn anything from them because he would have known everything already.) Becoming an adult he went into the river Jordan to become baptised by his nephew John and when he came out of the water people were astonished to suddenly hear a voice from the air. All the onlookers could hear the voice of Allah, the God of heaven and earth, who let everybody present hear that they could see His only begotten beloved son.

“16 And having been baptized, Jesus immediately went up out of the water: and, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And a voice from heaven, said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17 KJV_2011)

Son of David who received from his Father in heaven

Jeshua went to many places where people could see him (remember that nobody can see God or they would die) and found also witnesses who shouted for example “son of David! take pity on us!”

“And when Yahshua departed therefrom, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, You Son of David, have mercy on us.” (Matthew 9:27 KJBPNV)

The son of man promised for many years had come into being and received the power from his Father, without Him Jesus could do nothing.

“But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another: for truly I say to you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man has come.” (Matthew 10:23 KJBPNV)

“Then answered Yahshua and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatever things he does, these also does the Son likewise.” (John 5:19 KJBPNV)

“You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father: for my Father is greater than I” (John 14:28 KJBPNV)

Jesus himself clearly speaks about his Father in heaven who has handed over everything to him for a while. Because Jesus comes directly from the Father he, like any child, knows his father better than anybody else.

“25 In regard to that, Jesus then said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes. 26 Yes, Father: for that was your gracious will. 27 All things have been given to me by my Father: and no one really knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone really know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all you who labor and are carrying a heavy load, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30 KJV_2011)

A son of glad tidings

We have Jesus who is … “the son of man … lord of shabbat!” (Matthew 12:8) but also “Mashiach, the son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

“And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”” (Matthew 16:16 KJ21)

Allah is the One who gives the world everything we can see. He is the One who gave the glad tidings of a Word from Him that this man from Nazareth would be the Christ or Christos, the Messiah.

“Behold! the angels said: “O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of [the company of] those nearest to Allah;” (Koran 3:45 Yusufali)

But it would be wrong to consider that son of man, son of David, son of Abraham, son of Adam (see the genealogy of Christ in the different Bible books or gospels) as being Allah or the One Elohim Hashem Jehovah, God Himself.

“In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: “Who then hath the least power against Allah, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every-one that is on the earth? For to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things.”” (Koran 5:19 Yusufali)

“And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah.” (Koran 5:49 Yusufali)

“They do blaspheme who say: “Allah is Christ the son of Mary.” But said Christ: “O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.” Whoever joins other gods with Allah,- Allah will forbid him the garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help.” (Koran 5:75 Yusufali)

Son of the One Greatest Elohim

Jesus (Jeshua/Ishi), who never claimed to be God, told not to worship him but to honour the one greater than him, the Only One God to whom Jesus prayed himself and told us also to pray to.

“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14 KJ21)

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

“30 And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. 31 And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. 32 He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, 33 and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end.” 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Being who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:30-35 KJ21)

” (21) And it came to be, when all the people were immersed, יהושע {Jeshua} also being immersed, and praying, the heaven was opened, (22) and the Set-apart Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven saying, “You are My Son, the Beloved, in You I did delight.” (23) And when יהושע {Jeshua} Himself began, He was about thirty years of age, being, as reckoned by law, son of Yosĕph, of Ěli, (24) of Mattithyahu, of Lĕwi, of Meleḵi, of Yanah, of Yosĕph, (25) of Mattithyahu, of Amots, of Naḥum, of Ḥesli, of Noḡah, (26) of Maʽath, of Mattithyahu, of Shimʽi, of Yosĕph, of Yehuḏah, (27) of Yoḥanan, of Rephayah, of Zerubbaḇel, of She’alti’ĕl, of Neri, (28) of Meleḵi, of Addi, of Qosam, of Elmoḏam, of Ěr, (29) of Yehoshua, of Eliʽezer, of Yorim, of Mattithyahu, of Lĕwi, (30) of Shimʽon, of Yehuḏah, of Yosĕph, of Yonam, of Elyaqim, (31) of Melea, of Menna, of Mattattah, of Nathan, of Dawiḏ, (32) of Yishai, of Oḇĕḏ, of Boʽaz, of Salmon, of Naḥshon, (33) of Amminaḏaḇ, of Ram, of Ḥetsron, of Perets, of Yehuḏah, (34) of Yaʽaqoḇ, of Yitsḥaq, of Aḇraham, of Teraḥ, of Naḥor, (35) of Seruḡ, of Reʽu, of Peleḡ, of Ěḇer, of Shĕlaḥ, (36) of Qĕynan, of Arpaḵshaḏ, of Shĕm, of Noaḥ, of Lemeḵ, (37) of Methushelaḥ, of Ḥanoḵ, of Yereḏ, of Mahalalĕl, of Qĕynan, (38) of Enosh, of Shĕth, of Aḏam, of Elohim.” (Luke 3:21-38 The Scriptures 1998+)

“40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said unto him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is, being interpreted, “the Christ”).” (John 1:40-41 KJ21)

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

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

Anointed and given tasks by his Father

“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38 KJ21)

“22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, 23 that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father who hath sent Him.” (John 5:22-23 KJ21)

Prayed to his Father

Jesus did never asked for himself something to himself, but asked that not his will but the will of his Father would be done. It was to this Father he prayed and wanted all people to pray to.

“9 In this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. 10 Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on 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. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13 KJ21)

“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” (John 15:16 KJ21)

“And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” (John 16:23 KJ21)

” (40) And coming to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you do not enter into trial.” (41) And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and falling on His knees He was praying, (42) saying, “Father, if it be Your counsel, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My desire, but let Yours be done.” (43) And there appeared a messenger from heaven to Him, strengthening Him. (44) And being in agony, He was praying more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:40-44 The Scriptures 1998+)

An intercessor or mediator

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5 KJ21)

From the texts above we do hope you can see that not only Adam was the son of God and Eva His daughter who created them directly, but that also Jesus was created directly by Allah, and therefore he certainly could call himself son of God. But he offered himself also to be one of God His people, one of the most beloved ones of the Most High, Allah, the One God.

The 2° Adam was like the 1° Adam chosen by Allah:

“Allah did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ’Imran above all people,-” (Koran 3:33 Yusufali)

We as children of Abraham and of Adam should look at the man who made it possible to have the relation between God and man restored.

“O Children of Adam! wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters.” (Koran 7:31 Yusufali)

Son lower than Father

Today we can enjoy the many things and look forward to a better future because we did receive that son of man, who is also the son of God and now sit at the right hand of his Father, Allah, the only One God Jehovah, who is the greatest and without Him we can do nothing, even Jesus not, who is the faithful witness of God. In this world a son or daughter may become higher or better than his father or mother, but they shall never be able to come in a higher position the the Most High.

” (5) and from יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah, the trustworthy witness, the first-born from the dead, and the ruler of the sovereigns of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, (6) and has made us sovereigns and priests to His Elohim and Father, to Him be esteem and rule forever and ever. Amĕn.” (Revelation 1:5-6 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (18) And let them know that You, Whose Name is יהוה {Jehovah}, You alone are the Most High over all the earth.” (Psalms 83:18 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (3) For not knowing the righteousness of Elohim, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to1 the righteousness of Elohim. Footnote: 1Or did not obey. (4) For Messiah is the goal1 of the ‘Torah unto righteousness’to everyone who believes. Footnote: 1Or end purpose; not termination. (5) For Mosheh writes about the righteousness which is of the Torah, “The man who does these shall live by them.” (6) But the righteousness of belief speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who shall ascend into the heavens?’ ” – that is, to bring Messiah down; or, (7) “ ‘Who shall descend into the abyss?’ ” – that is, to bring Messiah up from the dead. (8) But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” – that is, the word of belief which we are proclaiming: (9) That if you confess with your mouth the Master יהושע {Jeshua} and believe in your heart that Elohim has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, and so is saved. (11) Because the Scripture says, “Whoever puts his trust in Him shall not be put to shame.” (12) Because there is no distinction between Yehud?ite and Greek, for the same Master of all is rich to all those calling upon Him. (13) For “everyone who calls on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah} shall be saved.”” (Romans 10:3-13 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (21) “And I shall call for a sword against Gog? on all My mountains,” declares the Master יהוה {Jehovah}, “the sword of each one being against his brother. (22) “And I shall judge him with pestilence and blood, and rain down flooding rain and hailstones, fire and sulphur, on him and on his bands and on the many peoples who are with him. (23) “And I shall exalt Myself and set Myself apart, and I shall be known in the eyes of many nations. And they shall know that I am יהוה {Jehovah}.” ’ “(Ezekiel 38:21-23 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (28) “You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you did love Me, you would have rejoiced that I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (3) And I wish you to know that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Elohim.” (1Corinthians 11:3 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (15) The man went away, and told the Yehud?im that it was יהושע {Jeshua} who made him well. (16) And because of this the Yehuḏim persecuted יהושע {Jeshua}, and were seeking to kill Him, because He was doing these healings on the Sabbath. (17) But יהושע {Jeshua} answered them, “My Father works until now, and I work.” (18) Because of this, then, the Yehuḏim were seeking all the more to kill Him, ‘because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He also called Elohim His own Father, making Himself equal with Elohim.’ (19) Therefore יהושע {Jeshua} responded and said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son is able to do none at all by Himself, but only that which He sees the Father doing, because whatever He does, the Son also likewise does. (20) “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself does. And greater works than these He is going to show Him, in order that you marvel. (21) “For as the Father raises the dead and makes alive, even so the Son makes alive whom He wishes. (22) “For the Father judges no one, but has given all the judgment to the Son, (23) that all should value the Son even as they value the Father. He who does not value the Son does not value the Father who sent Him. (24) “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me possesses everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. (25) “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Elohim. And those having heard shall live. (26) “For as the Father possesses life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to possess life in Himself, (27) and He has given Him authority also to do judgment, because He is the Son of Ad?am. (28) “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the tombs shall hear His voice, (29) and shall come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have practised evil matters, to a resurrection of judgment. (30) “Of Myself I am unable to do any matter. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own desire, but the desire of the Father who sent Me. (31) “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. (32) “There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.” (John 5:15-32 The Scriptures 1998+)

Men of God

Abraham, man of God, Sarah and (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Already in the Beréshith, the first book of the Holy Scriptures, we can find The Supreme Being making all things. As the Great Designer He is the Originator of everything, including man. Adam and Eve (Ḥawwah, the mannin) were His direct makings, His children, who could call him Father. Afterwards still many men of God, or men coming from God could call the Almighty Elohim their Father.

” (7) And יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim formed the man out of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils breath of life. And the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (18) And יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone, I am going to make a helper for him, as his counterpart.”” (Genesis 2:18 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (21) So יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (22) And the rib which יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim had taken from the man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. (23) And the man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one is called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.” (24) For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:21-24 The Scriptures 1998+)

We have received men of God (i.e. children of God having become adult) who brought us the Words of their Father in heaven. The chosen one from God, Abraham was allowed by his Father in heaven to become the witness for God and the father of many.

“And strive in His cause as ye ought to strive, [with sincerity and under discipline]. He has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on you in religion; it is the cult of your father Abraham. It is He Who has named you Muslims, both before and in this [Revelation]; that the Messenger may be a witness for you, and ye be witnesses for mankind! So establish regular Prayer, give regular Charity, and hold fast to Allah! He is your Protector-the Best to protect and the Best to help!” (Koran 22:78 Yusufali)

” (17) And יהוה {Jehovah} said, “Shall I hide from Aḇraham what I am doing, (18) since Aḇraham is certainly going to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? (19) “For I have known him, so that he commands his children and his household after him, to guard the way of יהוה {Jehovah}, to do righteousness and right-ruling, so that יהוה {Jehovah} brings to Aḇraham what He has spoken to him.”” (Genesis 18:17-19 The Scriptures 1998+)

On those men brought into the world by a man and a woman, allowed by God to have children, God brought His blessings and let them also announce the marvellous action which would take place in the future. (The one of Jesus been born and being risen from death has already come true).

“Those were some of the prophets on whom Allah did bestow His Grace,- of the posterity of Adam, and of those who We carried [in the Ark] with Noah, and of the posterity of Abraham and Israel of those whom We guided and chose. Whenever the Signs of [Allah] Most Gracious were rehearsed to them, they would fall down in prostrate adoration and in tears.” (Koran 19:58 Yusufali)

We, having found a restored relation with Allah, the Most High Almighty God, can now also come to Him (Jehovah) and call Him our heavenly Father.

Please do read also:

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A good example how certain Christians misunderstand the word Allah and what Islam should really mean is seen in Allah has the Same Behavior as Satan (justiceshallovercome.wordpress.com)
In his text the writer does not seem to recognise that in the Bible you shall also be able to find many instances where God call unto destroying of killing other people.
The writer seems to focus on militant fundamentalist Muslims where perhaps “The Altoyah muslims says that Allah is Satan” (Never heard such a thing) “The Terrorists of Bin laden says that Allah is Born out of Lucifer” (where can we see this written or hear him say that?), “this means the same as that Allah is Born out of Devil, this means also the same as that Allah is Born out of Satan.” Where he seems to forget what Satan means. Satan is any adversary, so it would not be abnormal to call Jehovah God the adversary or satan against the evil world. The writer of the article clearly considers the wrong viewpoint of certain Christians where Satan has become a devilish being which has two horns on its face and lives in a underground where people after they die will be tortured.
Conversations at the Mosque – Islam v Christianity (sianarulanantham.wordpress.com)
During my visit to Bahrain I took the tour of Al Fateh Grand Mosque. I was asked to dress in a Hijab and was shown around the building.
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My guide was a young lady called Faiza who had such a sweet humble nature, it was a pleasure to talk to her. She had a profound love of God and a desire to serve him and dedicate her life to him. She was keen to share her faith and I mine.
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So what did I learn? That Muslims believe that:
- There is only one God and our first commandment is to serve Him (although Islam does not attribute a gender to God) and then to serve others
- Abraham had direct communication with God and Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist are among the prophets
- Jesus was born of a virgin and was God’s messenger, the messiah who was foretold in Jewish scriptures
- Mary was a very special women, chosen by God
- Jesus healed the sick, raised people from the dead and was without sin
- There will be a second coming of Christ, which will be a time of judgement.
- We can communicate directly with God through prayer, we don’t need priests or rabbi as intercessors
- There are angels who God uses as messengers
In Secular Sunday: Losing My Religion, Part 1: Christianity (rebekkaksteg.com) can be seen how difficult it is for people to understand why God allows certain things to happen. THey donot seem to understand what happened in the Garden of Eden and do not see that when people thought they could do it better than God, when He gave them the right to rule the world, they should not blame Him for the things they did wrong.
She also writes:
I left Islam, and in the end, I couldn’t see any convincing evidence as to why I should believe in god at all. All I see is fairy tales, make-believe and wishful thinking. And I’m sorry, I’d rather be hurt by the truth than comforted by a lie.
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God orders genocides, murder and torture of other people, but that’s okay, because those were heathens who were damned anyway. God is okay with babies being born with horrible birth defects or cancer, but it is our fault for being sinful in the first place.
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At the age of 15, I really began to see the hypocrisy of many of my fellow Christians. The girls who were leading the worship sessions, and spoke about “saving yourself for marriage” were the ones who went all the way with their boyfriends.
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But if God is truly good, why would He allow so much evil in the world? If He is truly all-powerful and all-knowing? If She exists and we are given free will, this world seemed like a test designed to make us fail.
Christian-Jews-Muslims and Concept of God (makashfa.wordpress.com)There are two fundamental points between Islam and Christianity which,for the sake of the truth and the peace of the world, deserved a very serious and deep investigation. As these two religions claim their origin from one and the same source, it would follow that no important point of controversy between them should be allowed to exist. Both these great religions believe in the existence of the Deity and in the covenant made between God and the Prophet Abraham.
Damnable idol of “Catholic Jesus” erected in Syria (ivarfjeld.com)
In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a the Syrian Cherubim mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war.
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There are no limits to lawlessness, when people mock God in the name of “Jesus”. The law is crystal clear. Man shall not make any image, in the likeness of anything in Heaven above or on the Earth below.
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A false lawless copy-cat Messiah has guided the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, lead astray to follow demonic powers. No doubt the Islamic forces agreed on a cease fire, to let the god-mockers set up their gross idol.
Pakistani Police Hunting Down Christian Who Dared To Correct Islamic Misconceptions About Christianity (midnightwatcher.wordpress.com)
“Police and a banned Islamic extremist group in Lahore, Pakistan are searching for a young Christian accused of blasphemy – with the extremist group calling for his death – after he sought to correct misconceptions about Christianity in a Muslim book, sources said. Sources close to Adnan Masih, 26, said he believes that if he turns himself in, he will be killed by either the Islamic extremist Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) or the Pakistani judicial system, which makes blasphemy against Islam’s prophet punishable by death.
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A Few Simple Questions for Muslim Visitors – “The Qur’an teaches that, according to Christianity, God acquired a son through procreation with Mary. In the eyes of Muslims, the term ‘son of God’ is believed to be, and is therefore understood, in a literal sense. But this misrepresentation is so far from the basic tenets of Christianity that any serious student of the Qur’an should begin questioning the veracity of some of the teachings of Islam on this error alone… Because of Mohammed’s misunderstanding of what Christians believed and practiced, Islam teaches that the Christian belief of the Trinity is a polytheistic teaching of ’three gods’, characterized as the ‘Father’, and the ‘Son’ and the ‘Virgin Mary’ …” Read more.
In A Few Simple Questions for Muslim Visitors the writer misleading says that the teachings of the historic Christian faith that was delivered to the saints would be different to what the apostles believed and the many followers of Christ who kept truthful to the Only One God. The so called midnightwatcher also does not leave an opportunity to react, which shows how much reactions are avoided in the fear to having it answered properly or to let others disagree or show where the person goes wrong in his thinking.
U.S. imam: Muslims can take the property of Christians and Jews (cofda.wordpress.com)
Yasir Qadhi (aka Abu Ammaar Yasir Kazi) is an American imam and college professor who is described by a 2011 New York Times Magazine essay as “one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam.”
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In his sermon/lecture in the YouTube audio below, Qadhi begins by calling Christians “shirk” for being “polythesists” who believe in the Triune God (three persons in one God), instead of Islam’s “monotheist” god Allah.Then Qadhi really steps up his verbal abuse. He says, since “there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah wuzza wuzza,” Christians are “by necessity and by definition … the most evil of all evils.” Like all “unbelievers” and “polytheists,” Christians are “filthy.” They are ”najusa” (feces, urine) — “a filthy impure dirty substance.”
Test the Spirit (evangelize4life.org)
My recent (predetermined) encounters, with a Jehovah Witness and two Islamic Saudi Arabian students, supports John’s admonition. Both religions deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (not God), and insist that He was but a mere man or prophet of Allah. The Bible describes Satan as the father of lies and is responsible for promoting error regarding the true identity of Jesus Christ our Lord. According to scripture Lucifer uses false prophets, religions, doctrines, and more to propagate satanic lies in order to blind the eyes of unbelievers from the truth of God’s Word. In this same chapter, John describes the work of the Holy Spirit as “spirit of truth” and the activities of Satan as “spirit of error.”
What is a religion? (jesuschristzfreedom.wordpress.com)
There are several, or dozens, or hundreds of religions in the world. I’m not sure how many, because measuring where a religion stops and where the next one starts is like measuring where Alaskan Inuit becomes a different language than Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit. Because of this, there is really no way to know how many languages there are in the world, either. If these people can understand these people, and they can understand them, but they can’t understand them…
Once again an article on a site which does not give any possibility to react is What is the Bible: A Summary, and Some Important Highlights (servehiminthewaiting.com) were the writer sandra Lloyd also considers the New Testament to be the story of God-man which than would be Jesus. She understands that Christ is a title, rather than a name, and agrees that the prophesied Christ had come, and accomplished the redemptive work which he came to do, that is; “having never sinned, he died for (our) Human Sin, and rose from the dead, thereby buying our pardon, and commissioned.” Acknowledging that Christ Jesus died she also should recognise a sign that this was an element of humanness which God does not have as an eternal Spirit. God, who does not tell lies, can not be tempted, can not sin and can not die, said about that Nazarene Jew: “This is my beloved son”. when Jesus would be God all the promises made in the Old Testament would be false conceptions and would have people to believe that god must have been a terrible tyrant and unjust God, because why did He wait so long before He made an end to the effect of the first sin. And why do we still have to wait so long before we can see and enter that Kingdom of God about spoken in the Old Testament all the time?

	God en Zijn gezonden… on Wettisch tegenover wet
	God en Zijn gezonden… on Fundamenten van het Geloof 13…
	Vreugdeliederen opda… on Fundamenten van het Geloof 13…
	A biblical answer to… on Entrance of a king to question…
	A biblical answer to… on The wrong hero
	Today’s Though… on Get Your Wonderful Disease-pro…
	Law and justice very… on Faith Alone Does Not Save . .…
	Law and justice very… on God’s wrath and san…
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Example Jesus

Essence of life belongs to only One

Threat of false teachings

Mother goddess

Relation between Yahweh and other gods

Male or female god

Masculine and feminine terms

Gerunds no personal figures

Man Satan and Lady Wisdom

Husband and wife metaphor

Children of Israel

Bride Israel

Marriage strict bond between God and Israel

Israel showing no fidelity to marriage vows

The Bed of Jehovah

Broken bond

Open Invitation to non-Israelites

Kinsmen Redeemer

Virgin daughter of Babylon

Mutilated wife

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“Jesus … will come in the same way as you saw him go”

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Lazy Christians

Preaching Christians against not witnessing Muslims

Thinking all Christians and all Muslims are of the same lot

An earth-father or patriarch

Meaning of Islam

Worshipping prophet not followed

Chosen people and their faith

Son of a mother

Son of a father

A son to Allah

Son of David who received from his Father in heaven

A son of glad tidings

Son of the One Greatest Elohim

Anointed and given tasks by his Father

Prayed to his Father

An intercessor or mediator

Son lower than Father

Men of God

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