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The Naturalness of Jesus < The 'naturalness' of Jesus becomes all the more powerful when we grasp Biblically that Jesus is our representative; exactly because He was really, genuinely human, He is such a natural and powerful imperative to us in our behaviour.
Jesus died because He gave out His Spirit, as an act of the will. He didn’t just let events happen to Him. He was not mastered in His life by human lusts and selfish desires; He was in that sense the only ultimately free person to have ever lived.
Christ-centredness The Gospel of the Lord Jesus isn't a collection of ideas and theologies bound together in a statement of faith.
To achieve the " measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" is the 'perfection' or maturity towards which God works in our lives. As we read of Him day by day, slowly His words and ways will become ours.
The Bible and the doctrine of the Trinity: Man and his soul
Theodore Beza (1519-1605) Calvinist theologian. A Burgundian, in 1588 Beza accepted an offer from Calvin to teach at the newly founded academy at Geneva.
The Challenge of Bible Teachings About denominations and cults.
We need first of all to determine the factors that create a cult. Is anyone who believes differently from us, automatically a member of a cult?
Christ Died For Me: So What Should I Do?We died and rose with Christ, if we truly believe in His representation of us and our connection with Him, then His freedom from sin and sense of conquest will be ours; as the man guilty of blood was to see in the death of the High Priest a representation of his own necessary death, and thereafter was freed from the limitations of the city of refuge (Num. 35:32,33).
Does the Bible or the Qur'an have stronger historical corroboration? According Toby Jepsonhistorical corroboration is vital for both the Bible and the Qur'an, as both of them talk about people, places and events - the stuff of history.
A wealth of textual material supports the historicity of biblical events. A fascinating tour of the British Museum contains many exhibits relating to the people and events of the Bible.
In terms of contemporary documentation, the New Testament in particular has excellent support for its text thanks to the church fathers, whilst many points of history throughout the whole Bible are illuminated and confirmed by independent sources.
The Danger of Cults
Demons: Why Didn’t Jesus Correct People?
Demons: The Language Of The Day We see that in the New Testament it was the language of the day to describe someone as being possessed with demons if they were mentally ill or had a disease which no one understood.
The Danger of Cults; From Fervour to Fanaticism
The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being, But The Scriptural Personification of Sin In Its Manifestations Among Men.
The words "devil" and "Satan" occur repeatedly in the Scriptures, and are used in a personal sense; but there is no affirmation of the doctrine popularly attached to the words. This is remarkable; for if the doctrine be true, it would be reasonable to expect that it would be formally enunciated like other points of truth.
Distinction between the ethnic group and the ‘objective’, perceivable culture
The essence of the emblems Christ invited us to partake at his table.We are comforted when we partake of the emblems and remember the saving blood of Jesus, joy in that he has forgiven us and accepted us at his table. We have the cup of the New Testament in Christ’s blood (Lk.22: 20). We think of Christ whenever we approach the bread and wine.
God Manifestation Angels carrying God's name, men with God's name, Jesus and the name of God. Jesus ascended to heaven and God “gave him a name which is above every name” - But we would not agree with the thinking of the writer of the article that it is the same name as Yahweh.
God’s Spirit As God is a real, personal being with feelings and emotions, it is to be expected that He will have some way of sharing His desires and feelings with us, His children, and of acting in our lives in a way that will be consistent with His character. God does all of these things by His “spirit”. If we wish to know God and have an active relationship with Him, we need to know what this “spirit of God” is, and how it operates.
The Gospel A study about the Good News of God's kingdom that comes to us in the Bible message, which has to be told, what it meant and what it means.
Grace upon Grace Having been justified (counted righteous) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the glory of God.
The Kingdom of God A new beautiful Kingdom promised to Abraham, spoken of by the prophets and by Jesus. Apostles preached it.
To us is given the Gospel of the Kingdom which shall be realized.
The Inspiration Of The Cross In Daily Life The love of Christ in the cross is to have a continual inspiration upon us- endless love, countless moments of re-inspiration, are to come to us daily because of the cross.
The cross was the ultimate example of a Man being misjudged and misunderstood and condemned unjustly. When we feel like that, and the nature of our high speed, superficially judging society means that it seems to happen more in this generation than any other [and with deeper consequences]… then we know we are sharing the sufferings of the Lord.
The cross can touch and transform the hardest and most damaged heart.
Luther, Martin (1483-1546) Founder of the German Reformation. Ordained a priest in 1507, Luther became in 1508 professor of moral philosophy in the faculty of the arts at the recently founded University of Wittenberg.
Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) Swiss reformer. Ordained a priest in 1506, Zwingli was a devoted admirer of Erasmus.
John Calvin (1509-1564) French/Swiss reformer. Studying law at Bourges in 1530, Calvin became familiar with the ideas of Humanism and was probably exposed to the ideas of Martin Luther.
His growing sympathy with the Reformation movement led to his flight from Paris in 1533, after the Rector of the University of Paris delivered a controversial address thought to have been composed by Calvin, which showed affinities with Erasmus and Luther.
Wrote Ecclesiastical Ordinances and Institutio Religionis Christanae, Calvin’s Institutes, was published in Latin at Basle in 1536.
John Knox(c. 1513-1572) Eventually returning to Scotland in 1559, Knox became a leader of the Reforming party, drew up the Scottish Confession, and was the main author of the Book of Common Order (1556-64), the Scottish service book.
One of Knox’s significant works is History of the Reformation of Religion within the Realms of Scotland. Originally issued in an unfinished edition in 1587, it was immediately seized and suppressed. The first complete edition appeared in 1644.
Male and Female Roles in Old Testament Society
Man and his soul In the grace of God, we too can become part of this New Creation, though faith in the Son of God and by sharing in his resurrection.
Mary, who was she & what was her role Mary was a young virgin girl of the royal tribe of Judah, and a direct descendant of David. If you have never considered the Catholic Church’s teachings concerning Mary, you will be stunned to see what they have done with this humble Jewish girl.
The Meaning Of Christ's Resurrection For Us If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus, we will preach it world-wide. He died and rose as the representative of all men; and therefore this good news should be preached to all kinds and all races of people.The Lord's resurrection enabled forgiveness of sins. Because of the Name the Lord has been given, salvation has been enabled. The fact of the Lord's resurrection has assured forgiveness of sins for all who will identify themselves with it through baptism into Him; and this is why it is thereby an imperative to preach it, if we believe in it.
Seeing that God intends resurrecting our body, our body means so much to Him that Christ died and rose again to enable our bodily resurrection, therefore it matters a lot what we do with our body right now!
Melanchthon in 1540 was accepted by the Reformed (Calvinist) churches in Germany.
Middle Bronze Age For most of the Old Testament, we can find a good deal of archaeological evidence in the Middle East to corroborate the historical record e.g.: Moabite, Canaanite, Persian, Assyrian and Babylonian artefacts and excavation.
The biblical timeframe is being verified by a whole wave of new data from the Middle East which under the new chronology of Egypt ties in extremely well with the biblical account.
+ > David, Moses, Avaris, Joshua, Joseph, Jacob, sojourn, famine and the Israelites
migrants - living apart together
Monotheism Neither Paul or any writer of the Bible ever stated that "there is One God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit." No example out of thousands of occurrences of Jahweh (OT) and God (NT) can be shown to mean "God in three Persons." The Triune God is foreign to the Bible. The words of Paul need careful consideration: "There is no God but one…. To us there is One God, the Father" (1 Cor. 8:4, 6) There is also one Lord Messiah, Jesus (1 Cor. 8:6), but He is the Lord Christ (Luke 2:11; Ps. 110:1), the Son of the One God, His Father.
Nature of Preexistence in the New Testament Though the Messiah was foreknown (not known, but foreknown, as was Jeremiah before his birth, Jer. 1:5), he was manifested by being brought into actual existence at his birth (Luke 1:35). This is a typically Jewish way of understanding God’s purpose for mankind. He executes the Plan at the appropriate time. The so-called "pre-existence" of Jesus in John refers to his "existence" in the Plan of God.
Consider the disastrous effects of not paying attention to the Jewish ways of thinking found in the Bible, which was written (with the exception of Luke) by Jews. Clearly if Jews do not mean what we mean by "pre-existence" we are liable to misunderstand them on basic issues about who Jesus is. There is a huge difference between being predestined or foreordained and actually preexisting.
There is a deafening silence about any real pre-existence of Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts and Peter, and the whole of the Old Testament. Not only do they not hint at a pre-human Son of God, they contradict the idea by talking of the origin (genesis) of Jesus (Matt. 1:18) and his begetting as Son (Matt. 1:20) in Mary’s womb.
Old Testament is a mirror The New Testament is only completely understood when it is seen as being built upon the foundation of the events, characters, laws, sacrificial system, covenants, and promises of the Old Testament. Without the OT, we would not understand the Jewish customs that are mentioned in passing in the NT. The Old Testament is a mirror that allows us to see ourselves in the lives of OT characters and helps us learn vicariously from their lives.
Omniscience to the evil Good and evil are regarded as separate essences, and each is attributed to the control of a separate being.
OT - Without we would not understand the Jewish customs
What will the future (Paradise) Earth be like?
Pastor Russell is not the founder of JW Contrary to some publicity made concerning "Jehovah's Witnesses," Pastor Russell is not the founder of this religious group. He has never associated with "Jehovah's Witnesses" nor did he ever claim the name. Pastor Charles T. Russell died in 1916. The "Jehovah's Witnesses" came into existence later. Associating Pastor Russell with "Jehovah's Witnesses" leaves the decidedly mistaken view that their teachings and beliefs are alike. Such is not the case.
Pastor Russell founded what has been called The Bible Student's Association. This movement had its beginning in Allegheny, Pa. and earnest Christians formed a Bible class for advanced Bible study to meet the then rising wave of infidelity.
Philipp Melanchthon (Schwartzerdt) (1497-1560) German reformer. Melanchthon was the chief architect of the Augsburg Confession (1530). Subsequently, however, he went to great lengths to unite the Reformed and Roman Catholic churches.
Preaching We each ought to be witnessing the Gospel to those we daily rub shoulders with in life: and more than this, we have an absolute responsibility to do it. Witness is a daily feature in the life of those who have known salvation. Our witness is an outcome of our desire to praise and worship the loving Father and Son who have been so gracious to us.
We can’t possibly just rejoice in our own salvation, that we have found the Lord and are secured in Him; if we have truly experienced this, we will wish to share it with others. + We're All Preachers: Motivations For Preaching
+ The Way of Preaching The experience of preaching leads to our growth. Paul Tournier in The Meaning Of Persons perceptively comments: “We become fully conscious only of what we are able to express to someone else. We may already have had a certain intuition about it, but it must remain vague so long as it is unformulated”.
Preaching In The Spirit We seek to understand how Christ could preach in his spirit. There is an undoubted theme throughout 1 Peter 3 and 4 of the opposition between the “flesh” (that which is external, the appearance of things) and the “spirit”, that which is internal, which is of God.
The spirit by which Jesus was quickened is paralleled with our spirit of living to God, a quiet spirit, a life of righteousness, of good conscience etc. His Spirit is to be our spirit- we are to be of the “same mind / spirit” with Him, sharing the mind which He had especially during His time of dying (1 Pet. 4:1).
Preaching Out of touch?Doug Pagitt bluntly told that “preaching is broken.”
“A sermon is often a violent act,” says Pagitt, a key figure among emerging leaders.
Preaching is often “too packaged and clean” to connect with our listeners, Carrasco says.
The church might discuss the lectionary reading talk-show style, watch a film clip, hear a sermon, or interview a community member.
Predestination And Buddhism Buddhists believe that human destiny is individually determined by our past personal actions, thoughts and words (karma) which act as causes of our future happiness and misery.
There are many sound Biblical reasons for rejecting this kind of philosophy.
Pre-existence Look at page 4-6 to find notes on Christ his existence or not before he was born.
The idea of Jesus’ pre-existence is principally linked with the doctrine of the Trinity dealt with above. However the "Jehovah's Witnesses", although denying the Trinity, believe that Jesus was a "pre-existent spirit", the first created work of God. All of these ideas presuppose that the "spirit" or "soul" of a man can exist separately from his body: that Jesus previously
existed as a "spirit being" in heaven, and was then "incarnate" in a body, firstly in the womb of Mary. Is there any Biblical justification for these ideas and what does the Bible say about the nature of the Son of God?
Jesus "pre-existed" only in the mind and purpose of God. He was in every
respect a true man, like us, yet equally the true Son of God.
The so-called "preexistence" of Jesus in John refers to his "existence" in the Plan of God.
Prince of Darkness Who could be the prince of darkness, master of evil. Is there a devil who was once a powerful arch-angel?
The Promise to Abraham There’s a connection between the promise in Eden and the promises to Abraham. Abraham was promised the very things which were lost in Eden.
proskuneo Worship of God Almighty or homage toward men?
Qur'an - Bible historical corroborationWe are told from the hadith that Abu Bakr was the first to collate the texts of the Qur'an into one codex soon after Muhammad's death. A look at different versions or variants.
Ramesses IIPharaoh of the oppression known in the Middle East by the hypocoristicon or nickname of Ss'.
Records of the dealing of the real God Synopsis of David Rohl's book "A Test of Time" by John Fulton.
Rethink the sermon - time to - Preaching is broken because the church has failed to take the cultural shifts of postmodernity seriously. In today’s culture people are increasingly distrustful of authority figures, especially preachers, with overarching explanations of how the world works.
Revelation - Bible is a progressive. The Bible is a progressive revelation. If you skip the first half of any good book and try to finish it; you will have a hard time understanding the characters, the plot, and the ending.
Satan is a Hebrew word, and transferred to the English Bible untranslated from the original tongue. Meaning the adversary, enemy, accuser.
Saul and The Amarna Tablets In 1887, 380 clay tablets were discovered in Egypt at a place called Tell el-Amarna and have come to be known as the Amarna tablets. These tablets were letters from foreign rulers, mainly of city-states but also of the more powerful northern kingdoms of present-day Syria, Turkey and Cyprus, as well as what was once Babylonia and Assyria. They were written to the Egyptian pharaoh of the day; this was Amenhotep IV who soon changed his name to the famous Akhenaten.
shachah = 74/170 bow down, bowed himself, did reverence, did obeisance. It is claimed by some that the fact that our Lord Jesus received worship without rebuke signifies that he is Yahweh.
About sacred service only to be given to one person: Jehovah/Yahweh. The word shachah occurs 170 times and only about one-half of this number refer to the worship of Yahweh.
The Snare Of The Devil About falling into temptation and a snare...into many foolish and hurtful lusts.
Men are caught by one thing or the other- the devil, or our preaching of Christ.
+ The Messenger Of Satan Thorn in the flesh
Sojourn The length of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt is now taken by many biblical scholars as around 215 years.
Solomon About the Solomonic period to the Late Bronze Age.
Sons of God and Daughters of Men It is thought that “the sons of God” are angels who, on being thrown out of heaven for their sin, came down to earth and married attractive women, resulting in them having very large children.
Spiritual Growth: The Way of the Cross, The Way of Personal Failure, The Way of Preaching, The Way of Biblical Study, The Way of Grace.
Is the Holy Spirit a Person? God’s spirit refers to His power, which reflects His “mind” in a very broad way.
The ‘trinity’ was fundamentally a pagan idea imported into Christianity - hence the word does not occur in the Bible.
The Spirit Of JesusThe Spirit of Jesus is so active. All power has been given to Him; He it is who opens the seals so that world history can progress (Rev. 6). The Lord Jesus is " the Lord the spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18 RV); and " the Spirit" is one of Jesus' titles in Revelation, so closely is He identified with the work of the Spirit.
The Lord Jesus is truly alive and active amongst us and within us. He is a real, living Master and Lord, and according to our realization of this, our grasping of the spirit of Jesus, so will our service be.
Taizé - Why would thousands of Europeans travel to this tiny village in southern France? The pilgrims are noticeably young and earnest, most in their teens or 20s, in jeans and T-shirts, some draped with backpacks.
Brother Roger, founder of the Taizé community, issues the challenge that defines Taizé: "Dare to pray, dare to sing, until Christ sings in you more than you imagine."
The Bible & The Doctrine of the 'Trinity' The word "Trinity" does not occur in Scripture, as reference to any Bible Dictionary or Concordance will show. Nor is there any statement in the Bible that unambiguously sets out the doctrine, as understood by the mainstream Christian churches.
There's been looked at the history and on what the Bible teaches.
The idea of Jesus’ pre-existence is principally linked with the doctrine of the Trinity. However the "Jehovah's Witnesses", although denying the Trinity, believe that Jesus was a "pre-existent spirit", the first created work of God. All of these ideas presuppose that the "spirit" or "soul" of a man can exist separately from his body: that Jesus previously existed as a "spirit being" in heaven, and was then "incarnate" in a body, firstly in the womb of Mary. Is there any Biblical justification for these ideas and what does the Bible say about the nature of the Son of God?
Violence from within We should not blame our nature for our moral failures in the way that orthodox Christians blame an external Devil. The Swiss psychiatrist Paul Tournier wrote an incisive and brilliant study, Violence et puissance- in English translation, The Violence Within. From wide experience of practising psychotherapy and investigating the causes of various neuroses, Tournier discerned that within each person there is a huge battle between the right and the wrong, good and evil, temptation and resistance to temptation. This battle goes on constantly.
What does it mean that the Bible is inspired? When people speak of the Bible as inspired, they are referring to the fact that God divinely influenced the human authors of the Scriptures in such a way that what they wrote was the very Word of God. In the context of the Scriptures, the word “inspiration” simply means “God-breathed.” Inspiration means the Bible truly is the Word of God and makes the Bible unique among all other books.
Because the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, we can conclude that they are also inerrant and authoritative. A correct view of God will lead us to a correct view of His Word.
Why should we study the Old Testament? Without the OT, we would not understand the Jewish customs that are mentioned in passing in the NT. We would not understand the perversions the Pharisees had made to God's law as they added their traditions to it. We would not understand why Jesus was so upset as He cleansed the temple courtyard. We would not understand that we can make use of the same wisdom that Christ used in His many replies to His adversaries (both human and demonic).
Without the Old Testament we would miss out on numerous detailed prophecies that could only have come true if the Bible is God's word, not man's (see the major and minor prophets) (e.g., Daniel 7 and following chapters).
The OT also contains numerous lessons for us through the lives of its many fallible characters and vast quantities of wisdom that the New Testament does not share..
Without the OT, we would not understand the Jewish customs
Attitudes to Women in Post New Testament Times Women had not been accustomed to the kind of freedom they were to enjoy in the ecclesias of Paul’s day.
A look at the role of women at the early ages and under the monastic system. the attitude in the 13 th and 16 th century and post-reformation times.
Attitudes to Women in Christadelphian Writings Though in some places women can greet you at a Christadelphian hall, mostly it shall be men. Brothers are “on the door” to greet you and give you a warm welcome. They take it in turn to preside, speak, read the Bible publicly, and give the prayers. Brothers carry round the plate with the bread and the cup with the wine. The article goes into the reasons why sisters do not take part in prayer and exhortation in Christadelphian assemblies.
Though woman, by divine law is in subjection, she is not to be extinguished.
If the Scriptures appoint man as her head, they do not exclude her from partnership in all that concerns their mutual well-being. They show us women “labouring with Paul in the gospel” (Phillip iv. 3): as official servants of an ecclesia with business in hand, which the ecclesia was called upon to promote (Rom. xvi.1-3): exercising the prophetic gift (Acts xxi. 9); prominently ministering to Christ himself (Luke viii. 2-3): sometimes leaders in Israel, like Deborah (Judg. iv. 4).
When we look at writings of others within the Christadelphian community, we find that many have examined the issue and have supported fuller involvement for sisters.
Sisters continued to give talks throughout the 20th century. With reunion of the two fellowships (Suffolk Street and Temperance Hall) in 1957, there was some drawing back in order to pursue unity by uniformity.
Sisters have always played a smaller speaking part than brothers, as was also the case in the earliest ecclesias, and the vehemence with which their participation is attacked even today helps to uphold this situation. Nevertheless, it remains true that the interpretation that sisters should remain silent is not universal Christadelphian teaching or practice.
Word - John 1:1 There is no doubt that for the early Christians Jesus "had the value and reality of God." This, however, does not mean that they thought Jesus "was God."
It is a considerable mistake to read John 1:1 as though it means "In the beginning was the Son of God and the Son was with the Father and the Son was God."* This is not what John wrote. The German poet Goethe wrestled with a correction in translation: "In the beginning was the Word, the Thought, the Power or the Deed." He decided on "deed." He comes very close to John’s intention. What the evangelist wanted to say was: "The Creative Thought of God has been operating from all eternity."
Speaking of Jesus as the Son of God had a very different connotation in the first century from that which it has had ever since the Council of Nicea (325 AD). Talk of his pre-existence ought probably in most, perhaps in all, cases to be understood on the analogy of the pre-existence of the Torah, to indicate the eternal divine purpose being achieved through him, rather than pre-existence of a fully personal kind.
The so-called "pre-existence" of Jesus in John refers to his "existence" in the Plan of God.
Worship Due to Jesus How do we have to look at Jesus and do we have to worship him?
Zwingli, Ulrich (or Huldreich)(1484-1531) Swiss reformer. Ordained a priest in 1506, Zwingli was a devoted admirer of Erasmus.