All posts by David Stevenson

God explained

God explained

We only believe in one God, you clearly have no idea who God is

God explained

You and I live in a three-dimensional world. All physical objects have a certain height, width, and depth. One person can look like someone else, or behave like someone else, or even sound like someone else. But a person cannot actually be the same as another person. They are distinct individuals.

God, however, lives without the limitations of a three-dimensional universe. He is spirit. And he is infinitely more complex than we are.

That is why Jesus the Son can be different from the Father. And, yet the same.

The Bible clearly speaks of: God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. But emphasizes that there is only ONE God.

If we were to use math, it would not be, 1+1+1=3. It would be 1x1x1=1. God is a triune God.

Thus the term: “Tri” meaning three, and “Unity” meaning one, Tri+Unity = Trinity. It is a way of acknowledging what the Bible reveals to us about God, that God is yet three “Persons” who have the same essence of deity.

Some have tried to give human illustrations for the Trinity, such as H2O being water, ice and steam (all different forms, but all are H2O). Another illustration would be the sun. From it we receive light, heat and radiation. Three distinct aspects, but only one sun.

No illustration is going to be perfect.

But from the very beginning we see God as a Trinity. In the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, God says, “Let us make man in our image…male and female he created them.”Genesis 1:26,27 You see here a mixture of plural and singular pronouns.

When Moses asked God for his name, God replied, “I am” – eternally existing.

Jesus used the same phrase numerous times.
“I am the light of the world…”
“I am the bread of life…”
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Abraham is someone mentioned in Genesis, thousands of years before Jesus came to earth. Yet, Jesus said of himself, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” The Jews understood fully what Jesus was saying because they picked up stones to kill him for “blasphemy” – claiming to be God.John 8:56-59 Jesus has always existed. John 17.5

This came up time and time again. Jesus was so clear about his unique relationship with the Father. This is why, “the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.”John 5:16-18

For all of eternity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always been in relationship and communication with each other, yet not as three gods…as one God.

This answers the question:
If Jesus is God, who was he praying to?

On earth, Jesus continued to talk to the Father, and the Father and Spirit continued to communicate with him.

Though not a complete list, here is some other Scripture that shows God is one, in Trinity:

“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”Deut. 6:4

“I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God.”Isaiah 45:5

There is no God but one.1Cor. 8:4

And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”Matt. 3:16-17

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”Matt. 28:19

Jesus said: “I and the Father are one.”John 10:30

“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”John 14:9

“He who beholds Me beholds the One who sent Me.”John 12:45

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.Rom. 8:9

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”Matt. 1:20

And the angel answered and said to her [Mary], “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.”Luke 1:35

[Jesus speaking to His disciples] “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.” … “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.”John 14:16-17, 23

Gods will die like men

Gods will die like men

Gods will die like men?
Now look at Psalm 82:
1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.
2 How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.
5 They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
6 I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High.
7 But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.”
This passage requires a little more thought, but it is still quite clear. In the context of this passage it is clear that the ‘gods’ are not called so because they are divine, but because they are set up to be judges. God established His leadership to judge and do justice among the people. This has nothing to do with divinity. We know this because God follows up by saying, “You are gods and children of the Most High, but you shall die like men”. Look at the entire context of this passage. God is judging the judges He has ordained because they became arrogant and unjust. In stead of using the power God had given them to defend the helpless and needy, they used it for greed and gain. They afflicted the needy and gave favor to the wicked. Jesus used this same passage against the Pharisees. They thought they were above the people. The passage declares that these ‘gods’ are wicked, without understanding, walking in darkness, have an unstable foundation, and they will die like all men do. This doesn’t sound much like the claims of divinity the ‘Christian’ false teachers and other religions proclaim it to be.

God's Word or Paul's Personal Opinion, Paul

God’s Word or Paul’s Personal Opinion

1 Corinthians 7:12 in Context

In 1 Corinthians 7:10, Paul writes: “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband.” But only two verses later in verse 12 he writes: “But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her” (emphasis added).

What is going on here? Does Paul issue the Lord’s command in the first instance, but only offer a personal opinion in the second? Do we have to obey the first instruction but not the second since Paul says that the second comes from him rather than from the Lord?

New Testament scholars on the whole are in agreement that the distinction Paul is making here is not between his own personal opinion and God’s authoritative instruction; rather, he is contrasting the source of authority for each instruction. Both statements are fully authoritative, but the source of authority differs in each instance.

In the early second century, Polycarp of Smyrna, one of Christianity’s most famous martyrs, lists three sources of authority for early Christians. He writes, “So, then, let us serve him with fear and all reverence, just as he himself [Jesus] has commanded, as did the apostles, who preached the gospel to us, and the prophets, who announced in advance the coming of our Lord” (Pol. Phil. 6.3).

The three sources of authority for the earliest Christians were: (1) the teachings of Jesus passed on orally by the apostles; (2) the instructions of the apostles (cf. Acts 2:42); and (3) the words of the prophets, that is, the Old Testament Scriptures. These three streams of authority were different from each other stream, but each of the three was binding on early Christians.

So in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul distinguishes between source-of-authority No. 1 and source-of-authority No. 2. When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:10, “not I, but the Lord,” he is appealing to the specific teaching Jesus gave about divorce when he was on earth.

Did Jesus give instructions during his earthly ministry that a wife should not leave her husband? Yes, the early disciples orally passed on Jesus’ prohibition of divorce until it was written down in the Gospels a decade or so after Paul wrote 1 Corinthians (cf. Mark 10:11-12; Matthew 19:6, 9).

So when Paul passes on the particular instruction found in 1 Corinthians 7:10, he wants to draw attention to the fact that this teaching is not new; it was given by the Lord himself some 20 years earlier. Paul’s appeal in this verse, then, is to source-of-authority No. 1, the specific teaching of Jesus in his earthly ministry as passed down orally by the early disciples and written down in this verse by Paul.

But did Jesus give instructions during his earthly ministry about what to do in the case of a believer who is already married to an unbelieving spouse? No, there is no evidence in any of the Gospels that Jesus ever had reason to teach about such a situation during his earthly ministry.

So Paul gives authoritative instructions as God’s appointed apostle about what to do in this particular situation. In this case, his appeal is to source-of-authority No. 2, the authority of the apostles (of which he is one). His instruction is still a “trustworthy” word of the Lord, even if Jesus didn’t teach about it during his earthly ministry (1 Corinthians 7:25), because, as Paul says about himself, “I also have the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 7:40). Paul is a divinely appointed apostle who has authority to give such directions to the churches (1 Corinthians 7:17).

So despite the common assumption that Paul is just giving his personal opinion in 1 Corinthians 7:12, there are good reasons ” as a glance at almost any good commentary on this passage will show ” that we should not take this instruction, or indeed, any of the teachings of the apostles, as somehow lacking in authority. 1 Corinthians 7:12 is not just Paul’s personal opinion; it is the authoritative instruction of an apostle of the Lord

Gospel Forty Years

Gospel Forty Years

An Introduction to the Gospels. Written over the course of almost a century after Jesus’ death, the four gospels of the New Testament, though they tell the same story, reflect very different ideas and concerns. A period of forty years separates the death of Jesus from the writing of the first gospel

A period of forty years separates the death of Jesus from the writing of the first gospel. History offers us little direct evidence about the events of this period, but it does suggest that the early Christians were engaged in one of the most basic of human activities: story-telling. In the words of Mike White, “It appears that between the death of Jesus and the writing of the first gospel, Mark, that they clearly are telling stories. They’re passing on the tradition of what happened to Jesus, what he stood for and what he did, orally, by telling it and retelling it. And in the process they are defining Jesus for themselves.”

These shared memories, passed along by word of mouth, are known as “oral tradition.” They included stories of Jesus’ miracles and healings, his parables and teachings, and his death. Eventually some stories were written down. The first written documents probably included an account of the death of Jesus and a collection of sayings attributed to him.

Then, in about the year 70, the evangelist known as Mark wrote the first “gospel” — the words mean “good news” about Jesus. We will never know the writer’s real identity, or even if his name was Mark, since it was common practice in the ancient world to attribute written works to famous people. But we do know that it was Mark’s genius to first to commit the story of Jesus to writing, and thereby inaugurated the gospel tradition.

“The gospels are very peculiar types of literature. They’re not biographies,” says Prof. Paula Fredriksen, “they are a kind of religious advertisement. What they do is proclaim their individual author’s interpretation of the Christian message through the device of using Jesus of Nazareth as a spokesperson for the evangelists’ position.”

About 15 years after Mark, in about the year 85 CE, the author known as Matthew composed his work, drawing on a variety of sources, including Mark and from a collection of sayings that scholars later called “Q”, for Quelle, meaning source. The Gospel of Luke was written about fifteen years later, between 85 and 95. Scholars refer to these three gospels as the “synoptic gospels”, because they “see” things in the same way. The Gospel of John, sometimes called “the spiritual gospel,” was probably composed between 90 and 100 CE. Its style and presentation clearly set it apart from the other three.

Each of the four gospels depicts Jesus in a different way. These characterizations reflect the past experiences and the particular circumstances of their authors’ communities. The historical evidence suggests that Mark wrote for a community deeply affected by the failure of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome. Matthew wrote for a Jewish community in conflict with the Pharisaic Judaism that dominated Jewish life in the postwar period. Luke wrote for a predominately Gentile audience eager to demonstrate that Christian beliefs in no way conflicted with their ability to serve as a good citizen of the Empire.

Despite these differences, all four gospels contain the “passion narrative,” the central story of Jesus’ suffering and death. That story is directly connected to the Christian ritual of the Eucharist. As Helmut Koester has observed, the ritual cannot “live” without the story.

While the gospels tell a story about Jesus, they also reflect the growing tensions between Christians and Jews. By the time Luke composed his work, tension was breaking into open hostility. By the time John was written, the conflict had become an open rift, reflected in the vituperative invective of the evangelist’s language. In the words of Prof. Eric Meyers, “Most of the gospels reflect a period of disagreement, of theological disagreement. And the New Testament tells a story of a broken relationship, and that’s part of the sad story that evolves between Jews and Christians, because it is a story that has such awful repercussions in later times.”

All Israel Will Be Saved

All Israel Will Be Saved

Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

God has us in Romans 11 at a remarkable time in history. The place of Israel as a people in the Middle East is a global issue with worldwide significance. And the place of Israel right here in our city is just now a front-burner issue as it is around the country, largely because of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. So let me put today’s message in this context.

On Friday I received an email from a Jewish leader in the community mailed to some of the downtown clergy. It was a gentle but firm expression of concern about Gibson’s film. After praising the track record of peaceful Jewish-Christian dialogue in Minnesota, the message said:

It is with this sense of respect and need for dialogue that we raise our concerns about this film with you. We are gravely aware of the potential rifts this film could open once again, not only between Jews and Christians, but between Christians of different view points. Our world has become all too polarized in recent years and we believe this film promotes that very polarization. . . .

After viewing the film, we are deeply troubled with the way in which Jews are portrayed. No religious, racial or ethnic group welcomes being stereotyped. This film portrays Jews who did not follow Jesus as a bloodthirsty crowd demanding the crucifixion of Jesus, unyielding in their lust for his torment and death.

For almost 2,000 years, the week leading up to Easter was a time when some of the worst violence against Jews occurred — often because Passion Plays encouraged an interpretation that blamed Jews collectively for the death of Jesus and also served as a reminder that Jews do not accept Jesus. In recent decades, The Catholic Church and many Christian denominations recognized that the charge of deicide [murder of God] and the depiction of Jews in Passion Plays have led to the death, expulsion and horrific mistreatment of Jews.

The repudiation of the deicide charge by the Catholic Church and others, and calls by leadership groups within Christianity for responsible, accurate and sensitive portrayals of the Passion, have played an instrumental role in not only diminishing tensions between Christians and Jews but building relationships based on trust and mutual respect.

We hope that as you and your congregants view this film and talk about it, you and they will gain awareness of the Jewish perspective and come to understand the source of our concerns and the sincerity of our prayers for peace and understanding. We ask Christian clergy to discuss these perspectives with their congregants as they wrestle with the meaning and their understanding of this controversial film. Our hope is that all religious institutions find it their mission to build bridges of understanding and peace.

I make no effort here to defend the movie. You decide for yourself whether it is a “responsible, accurate and sensitive portrayal” of Jesus’ final suffering. My concern here and now is to simply make plain that the “bridge of understanding and peace” built by Romans 11 between the Israel of Minneapolis and the followers of Jesus Christ in Minneapolis is an explanation and invitation to Jews and Gentiles to believe in the one and only Redeemer Jesus, the Christ — the Jewish Messiah — and be saved from the wrath of God.

Christ the Deliverer Is the Bridge of Understanding and Peace

The apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that Christians “wait for [God’s] Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” Jesus is the “the Deliverer” (ton heruomenon) from God’s wrath to come. The closest parallel in the New Testament to this word “Deliverer” is found in Romans 11:26, where Paul describes how “all Israel” will be saved. Verse 26: “And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer (ho heruomenos) will come from Zion [meaning Jerusalem or the heavenly Jerusalem], he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”

So we see that this Deliverer is Jesus Christ. He is the one who will save “all Israel,” and his salvation will be from “the wrath to come.” And the way he will do it is by “banishing ungodliness from the people,” as we see in verse 26: “He will banish ungodliness from Jacob” — that is, from all Israel. And he will forgive their sins. Verse 27: “And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” So Israel will be saved when Jesus Christ, the deliverer, comes from Zion and (1) takes away the ungodliness — that is, the hardening — from Israel and replaces it with faith [recall verse 23, “if they do not continue in their unbelief , they will be grafted in”), and so (2) their sins will be forgiven, and (3) they will be grafted in to the tree of salvation and promise as one people with the Gentiles who believe in Jesus.

I say again, this is the bridge and the peace that Romans 11 builds between the Jewish community and the Christian Church. One Deliverer, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel, saves us both through faith alone in his finished work on the cross. Which means that the bridge from Christ to Israel is a bridge of prayer and evangelism, in the hope that Israel (and the nations) might trust her Christ and be saved. We follow the apostle Paul across this bridge as he prays in Romans 10:1, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved;” and as he preaches the gospel in Romans 11:14 to “save some of them.”

Two-Covenant Theology, or Two-Track Salvation?

I say this clearly and forthrightly because you need to know that this is not believed by the Jewish community, nor, sadly, by some of the Christian leaders in this city. On the contrary, much of the peace and mutual respect between Jews and Christians in this city is built on a denial of Paul’s teaching and on an unbiblical teaching that there are two separate ways for Jews and Christians to be saved.

Listen to John Stott as he comments on the meaning of salvation in Romans 11:26.

It is understandable that since the holocaust Jews have demanded an end to the Christian missionary activity among them, and that many Christians have felt embarrassed about continuing it. It is even mooted that Jewish evangelism is an unacceptable form of anti-Semitism. So some Christians have attempted to develop a theological basis for leaving Jews alone in their Judaism. Reminding us that God’s covenant with Abraham was an “everlasting covenant”, they maintain that it is still in force, and that therefore God saves Jewish people through their own covenant, without any necessity for them to believe in Jesus. This proposal is usually called a “two-covenant theology”. Bishop Krister Stendahl was one of the first scholars to argue for it, namely that there are two different salvation “tracks” — the Christian track for the believing remnant and believing Gentiles, and the track for historical Israel which relies on God’s covenant with them.

Romans 11 stands in clear opposition to this trend because of its insistence on the fact that there is only one olive tree, to which Jews and Gentile believers both belong. . . “The irony of this,” writes Tom Wright, “is that the late twentieth century, in order to avoid anti-Semitism, has advocated a position (the non-evangelization of the Jews) which Paul regards precisely as anti-Semitic.” 1

Yes, and it is not only an irony, but a tragedy. I doubt that a church that surrenders the evangelization of the Jewish people in this way can keep the gospel for long. It will be undermined by denying the necessity of faith in Christ for salvation. The apostle Paul would have found this position of a two-track salvation to be a radical denial of the work of Christ, and a profound failure of love toward Israel.

So let the point be made clearly and soberly today: Salvation comes to Israel and to Gentiles in the same way — through faith in the Deliverer, Jesus the Christ, or it doesn’t come at all.

The Certainty of Israel’s Salvation

Now the point of today’s text is wonderfully more than that. Not only is salvation for Israel only through the Deliverer, Jesus Christ, but this salvation for Israel also is certainly coming. The salvation of Israel is not just a possibility but a certainty. God has given the promise, and God has called Israel for his own, and Paul says in verse 29, “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” So let’s read the promise in Romans 11:25-26, “Lest you [Gentiles] be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel [we saw that back in verse 7], until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’”

Not: all Israel may be saved, but: all Israel will be saved. Not everyone agrees that “all Israel” refers to the nation as a whole alive in some future generation. Some take “all Israel” to refer to the true spiritual Israel including Jews and Gentiles. Others take it to refer to the remnant of believing ethnic Israel that is being saved all along through faith in Christ. Both of these views deny what I have been arguing for — that there will be a great and stupendous national conversion of Israel some day.

Five Reasons Why I Believe Romans 11:26 Refers to the Nation of Israel as a Whole

So let me draw out several reasons again why I believe verse 26 (“And in this way all Israel will be saved”) means that someday the nation as a whole (not necessarily every individual; see 1 Kings 12:1; 2 Chronicles 12:1) will be converted to Christ and join the Christian church and be saved. And then we will conclude with some implications.

1. I think the term “Israel” in verse 25 and 26 most naturally refer to the same thing.

Verse 25: “Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel. . . .” That must refer to the nation as a whole from generation to generation. He continues, “. . . until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved.” I don’t think the meaning of Israel changes between verse 25 and 26. The hardened Israel (the nation as a whole) will be the saved Israel (the nation as a whole).

2. The reference in verse 26 to banishing ungodliness from Jacob fits with the national view of “all Israel.”

Verse 26: “And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’” This seems most naturally to be a picture of Christ’s return at the second coming, and banishing ungodliness from Jacob refers most naturally to the removal of the hardening referred to in verse 25. “Jacob” is not a natural or typical reference to the elect remnant of Israel. The hardening lasts until the full number of the Gentiles comes in (the climax of world missions), and then Christ comes and lifts the veil and removes the hardening — he banishes ungodliness from Jacob, from “all Israel.”

3. The parallel between the two halves of verse 28 point to all Israel as the nation as a whole.

Verse 28: “As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake.” Now that half of the verse surely refers to the nation as a whole — they are enemies of God. So the second half of the verse surely refers to the nation as a whole as well: “But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” The point of this verse is to show that even though Israel now is a covenant-breaking, unbelieving nation, that is going to change. The nation that are enemies now, will be converted later because of election and love.

4. The parallels in verse 12 point in the same direction.

Verse 12: “Now if their [the Jewish nation’s] trespass means riches for the world [salvation for the Gentiles], and if their [the Jewish nation’s] failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion!” Here “their full inclusion” most naturally refers to the same nation as “their trespass” and “their failure.” So “their full inclusion” refers to the salvation of “all Israel” and is national.

5. The same thing is true about the parallels in verse 15.

“For if their [Jewish nation’s] rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their [Jewish nation’s] acceptance mean but life from the dead?” The nation now rejected will be accepted. So the “acceptance” of the Jewish nation most naturally refers to the salvation of “all Israel” — the salvation of the nation as a whole some day.

Implications

Now how is this going to happen? I don’t know the details, but it seems to me that Paul does mean that in connection with the second coming of Christ there will be a great turning of Israel to Christ. Just how it works, I don’t know. But I find certain prophecies very suggestive. For example, Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” And Isaiah 66:8, “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children.” And Matthew 23:39, where Jesus says to the hardened nation: “I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

I don’t want to go beyond what is clear. So I say that I am not sure about the precise when and how of Israel’s conversion. But that it is coming and that it will be given by Jesus Christ, the deliverer who banishes ungodliness and forgives sins — of that I feel sure.

We should pray for it — that the full number of the Gentiles comes in and that the hardening be lifted from Israel. We should work for it with missions to the nations and witness to Israel. We should put away all conceit and presumption over Jewish unbelievers but realize that God is aiming to save them through our salvation. And we should think clearly and carefully about the land of Israel today — which is what I want to try to do next week.

For now, then, let us give ourselves to prayer and to the great work of gathering the fullness of the Gentiles, if by any means we might make Israel jealous of her treasures in Christ so that they believe and be saved.

Gospel of Thomas

Gospel of Thomas

THe gospel of Thomas has lots of errors here is one for example

In 1 Cor 2:9, Paul paraphrases Isaiah:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Now consider Thomas 17:
“Jesus said, ‘I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind.'”

This webpage explains in great detail what is wrong with the Gospel of Thomas https://carm.org/does-the-gospel-of-thomas-belong-in-the-new-testament

God Would Not Be The God Of Justice If He Let Evil Go Unpunished

God Would Not Be The God Of Justice If He Let Evil Go Unpunished

God would not be the God of justice if he let wrongs slide by undealt with, just like a parent would be derelict if she let her children get away with everything.
This is why he shows wrath, to punish wrong and evil:

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. (Nah. 1:3)

I will discipline you but only with justice;
I will not let you go entirely unpunished. (Jer. 30:11)

Some Muslims criticise God when, for example, He tells Israel to ‘…attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ (1 Samuel 15:3). They argue that these are the commands of a cruel dictator rather than a loving God.

A better way is to seek Him as He is. You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you… (Psalm 63:1). If we respect God first, then we will begin to understand him. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge… (Proverbs 1:7).[5]

God is righteous and not cruel

When Israel came into the Promised Land, God told them to completely destroy the existing nations. He wanted to judge those nations for the wickedness they did earlier and to deter Israel from copying them.[6]

From our viewpoint, this appears incredibly harsh; however we must remember that God is infinitely holy and perfectly righteous. He sees things we do not see[7] and also He holds nations accountable as well as individuals.[8]

Other times, we see God as loving and merciful …But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love… (Nehemiah 9:17). Whatever the situation, He is never motivated by cruelty …he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone (Lamentations 3:33). Cruelty implies a desire to see someone suffer. He hates sin and must deal with it fully, but at the same time He is very willing to forgive.[9]

God became more approachable when Jesus died for our sins

Although God never changes,[10] His relationship with mankind can. In the Old Testament He covenanted with Israel to be their God and for them to be His people.[11]

As a nation they had to obey the Law, sacrifice animals for their sins and punish evildoers so He could live among them.[12]

The Israelites could never be perfected by their sacrifices because they had to keep offering them.[13] They were continually reminded of their sin and that God is holy, and had to keep their distance from Him.[14]

In the New Testament Jesus offers us a better covenant …the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). Through it, we can come right into God’s presence and experience His love. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:14). For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Bible references:
[1] See also Joshua 6:17; 8:1-2; Psalm 137:8-9. [2] Romans 5:8; 1 John 3:1, 4:7-12. [3] Psalm 14:1. [4] Ecclesiastes 5:1-2; Luke 12:4-5. [5] Luke 10:21; James 1:5. [6] Deuteronomy 20:16-18; 1 Samuel 15:2. [7] 1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 139:1-6. [8] Deuteronomy 9:5; Proverbs 14:34; Jonah 1:2. [9] 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9. [10] Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8. [11] Exodus 6:7. [12] Exodus 20ff. [13] Hebrews 10:1-4. [14] Exodus 19:16-25; Numbers 4:17-20; 18:21-22.

Grain Of Wheat

Grain Of Wheat

In John 12:24, Jesus said concerning His approaching death, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain (emp. added). The Law of Biogenesis says that in nature, life comes only from life of its own kind (Miller, 2012). Life cannot spontaneously generate or create itself. So, how could a grain which dies, subsequently produce living things? Does this phenomenon contradict the Law of Biogenesis? Did Jesus make a mistake? Was He ignorant of the scientific principle we call the Law of Biogenesis?

First, scientists understand today that a seed is typically not considered lifeless for some time, but rather, is dormant, and therefore, still able to produce life. Seeds are alive when they produce other life, in keeping with the Law of Biogenesis. Seeds can remain dormant for centuries and still produce life (cf. Quick, 1961, pp. 94-99). For instance, a seed from Masada in Israel that was radiocarbon-dated to the time of Christ was recently germinated and studied for over two years as it grew (Sallon, et al., 2008). A seeds ability to produce life does not contradict the Law of Biogenesis. But does that mean that Jesus was wrong in saying that a grain dies?

The answer is seen in understanding that the words life and death can mean different things, depending on the context in which they are used. This is especially true in the Bible. Death in the Bible simply means a separation of some sort (Butt, 2006). Spiritual death occurs when we commit sin, which separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2; Romans 6:23). Ones faith is dead when it is not coupled with works of obedience (James 2:26). Physical death occurs when the spirit is separated from the physical body (James 2:26). Plants were not created in the image of God, like humans (Genesis 1:26), and were not endowed with a spirit, although sadly, many confused individuals in the world would likely disagree (cf. Miller, 2008). So, Jesus is not talking about death in the same way humans die.

But what separation has occurred in the case of the grain Jesus mentioned? The text helps to illuminate its own meaning. When a grain falls to the ground, it dies. Falls from where? Obviously, it falls from its stalk. So, when it falls, being separated from its stalk, it is no longer receiving nourishment from it, and has undergone a form of death. It is no longer growing and being nurtured by its stalk, but rather, begins to slowly decay. This is not in contradiction to the Law of Biogenesis, which indicates that life cannot come from lifeless matter in nature. A seed is typically not considered lifeless for centuries or longer. The renowned Greek lexicographers, Arndt, Gingrich, and Danker, help to illuminate the distinction between lifeless death and the death implied by mere separation, explaining that the meaning of apothnasko (i.e., the Greek word translated dies in John 12:24), when speaking of plants and animals, is not necessarily death as we typically use the word when referring to lifeless death. They note that in John 12:24, the word technically means decay (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:36), but contextually, is meant to imply the idea of death in Jesus illustration, which is why the translators used died (Arndt, Gingrich, and Danker, 1979, p. 91).

Armed with this information, Jesus meaning in the passage is clear, and alleged error cannot be sustained against Jesus or the Bible. A grain of wheat must die, i.e., be separated from its stalk and nourishment and fall to the ground, decaying, in order to produce more wheat. Similarly, Jesus had to die, i.e., His soul had to be separate from His physical body in order to bear fruit in the form of disciplesfollowers washed in the blood that He shed for us. Rest assured, the Bible does not contradict the laws of science. After all, God, Himself, authored them (Job 38:33).

great mystery of the incarnation

great mystery of the incarnation

The great mystery of the incarnation is the crux and the core of the Christian message. It is the mystery over which the rationalists stumble, by which the humanists are offended and by which the world is bewildered.

The natural mind is not equipped to grasp this truth. The Apostle Paul said, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16).

I would like you to consider three facts regarding the incarnation:

First, the incarnation is a scriptural fact. The recurring theme of the Bible is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The prophets wrote of it, the psalmists sang of it, the apostles rejoiced and built their hopes on it and the Epistles are filled with it. Christ’s coming in the flesh”His invading the world, His identifying Himself with sinful men and women”is the most significant fact of history. All of humanity’s puny accomplishments pale into nothingness when compared to it.

Isaiah said, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Even the Savior’s entrance into the world was mysterious, beyond the grasp of the rational, natural person. But as God in the person of Jesus Christ walked and talked with people, they were conscious of the fact that God had manifested Himself in the flesh. Hearts that had been repelled by empty forms of religion ran to Him as starving men and women to a feast.

The distant heavens and the remote earth, the elusive God and the wayward human, were brought close to each other. The fact runs throughout the whole Bible: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19). “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). We read in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And in Philippians 2:7, “But [Christ] made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”

Men and women, fettered and bound, were incapable of coming to God, so God in love and mercy came down to earth to interact with humans. Wonder of wonders! God incarnate! God clothed in a human body in the person of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures unite in one voice to declare this.

But He did not come just to be identified with humans”that would inflate their pride all the more. He came not only for identification, but also for reconciliation. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). “Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). We exclaim with the songwriter, “Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”

Second, the incarnation is a historical fact. Christianity has its roots in the deep, firm soil of history. The doctrine of the incarnation means that God came right down amid the sin and confusion of this world. It means that God was capable of participating in our pain, our suffering, our conflicts and our sorrows. It proves to us that His love was not just a vague theory sung in ancient sonnets or proclaimed by shepherd mystics of the backcountry. It was real, vibrant and realizable.

His incarnation”His being born in human flesh”was for the record. He came to the world, once and for all, that we might forever know that He has an absorbing interest in the way we live, the way we believe and the way we die. He came to demonstrate to us that God and mankind belong together. He came to mankind to mend the gap and fill the gulf that separated the creature from his Creator. And He accomplished what He came to do.

Every time He fed a hungry man, He was saying, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). Every time He healed a suffering person, He was saying, “It hurts me to see you hurt.” Every time He lifted a burden of sin, He was saying, “Your God is grieved when you remove yourself from His grace.” Every move He made, every miracle He performed, every word He spoke, was for the purpose of reconciling a lost world to a loving, compassionate God.

Once I was walking near my home, and I looked down and saw an anthill that had just been crushed. I saw that the carefully planned home was ruined and that several ants had been killed and many injured. I wished for a moment that I were an ant. I wanted to be one of them so I could explain that I wanted to help them. But I had no way of communicating with them, so I went on my way.

But when God looked down and saw the world devastated by sin, He did not go away! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is what the incarnation means. God did something about our plight.

Even though you may never have received Christ as your Savior, you have demonstrated the fact of the incarnation every day that you have lived. Whenever you date a letter, you are witnessing to the fact that 2,000 years ago God invaded human history to reconcile the world to Himself. The fact that Jesus came is written in history, it is written on the calendar, it is written in the Bible and it is written on your conscience. You cannot escape it!

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14)”and He knows that you know He came. Don’t you see that you are without excuse? God has done so much for your redemption; I ask you, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3).

Third, let us consider the experiential fact of the incarnation. The incarnation can be experienced. The greatest proof that Christ once lived in history is the fact that He lives today in people’s lives. Every born-again person can say with Paul, “Last of all He was seen by me” (1 Corinthians 15:8). He not only lived, but He still lives and will continue to live forever.

Every time a person receives Christ as Savior, God in the person of the Holy Spirit takes up residence in his or her heart.

The age-old issue, “Can a person save himself, or does he need God?” is raging across the world as furiously as ever. As long as the world goes on, people will build towers of Babel, fashion graven images and invent their own ideologies. Now, as in every period of history, people and nations think they can manage without God. They may manage economically, intellectually and socially. But underneath the surface of a rational person is a vacuum”a void that can be filled only through Jesus Christ.

From Paul on down through history, gifted and rational men and women have found Christ to be the answer to their spiritual and moral problems. Composers, writers, leaders of government, leaders from the entertainment world, engineers, business magnates, salespeople, grocery employees, tradespeople and common laborers”men and women from every walk of life”are able to say, “If anyone is in Christ, he [or she] is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And what He did for them He can do for you.

Christ not only lived in the flesh, but He can live in you. He can live in your heart. It makes no difference who you are. Your life can be changed if you will humble yourself and let Christ take up residence in your heart. And you will be a “new creation!”

Greek Word for Bible

Greek Word for Bible

It might seem strange that the word “Bible” is not in the Bible but the inference of the Bible is there when the words “Scripture,” “The Word of the Lord” or “Thus says the Lord” occur and that is over one thousand times. By this enormous amount of references to Scripture as the Word of God, we know that all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim3:16) and its source is from the Spirit of God (2 Pet 1:21). The English word “Bible” is from the Greek word “Byblos” and the Latin “biblia” and both mean “books.” These “books” are a collection of writings constituting the sacred text of Scripture. These books are collectively referred to as the Bible and include the Book of Genesis all the way to the Book of Revelation. These books of the Bible are what God calls “the Word of God” or “Scripture” and include “Thus says the Lord.”