Category Archives: Christian

BEING FULLY TAUGHT

Acts 18:24-26 (Apollos); Revelations 2:12-16 (Nicolaitans)

John identifies the teaching of Balaam with two problems: “eating food sacrificed to idols” and “sexual immorality”.

The early church constantly struggled with compromises with paganism, as we see in Paul’s long discussion in 1 Corinthians 8 – 10, as well as in the conclusions reached in Acts 15:20, 29.  Both of these centers on food offered to idols, Paul’s conclusion being that one could eat such food if purchased in the marketplace, but one should not go to a meal in a pagan temple.

Following this Pauline rule, however, would cut one off from membership in trade guilds, patriotic celebrations (including ceremonies honoring the emperor, considered essential to good citizenship) and many family celebrations.  We can easily see the pressure to rationalize and thereby develop a compromise.

The issue of sexual immorality is more difficult, for it is also mentioned in Revelation 2:20, 22, in the case of Jezebel (an Old Testament code word for a New Testament woman leader of the church in Thyatira, indicating her spirit and God’s evaluation, rather than the woman’s actual name).  On the one hand, sexual immorality was a problem in the early church, as Paul’s discussions show (1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:12-20; compare Hebrews 13:4).

In the middle of a pagan society that accepted the use of prostitutes (although wives were expected to remain faithful), it was difficult to remain obedient on this point and relatively easy to compromise.

On the other hand, “sexual immorality” was used in the Old Testament for involvement with pagan deities.  For example, the Old Testament Jezebel was not to our knowledge physically immoral – she was likely faithful to Ahab all her life – but she did lead Israel into Baal worship.  Since Israel was Gods’ “bride”, such involvement with other gods was called “adultery” or “sexual immorality”.

If then, John is taking the Old Testament examples as the basis for his discussion; sexual immorality is figurative, standing for their worship of other deities, which was implied in their attending feasts in idol temples.

The Nicolaitans, then, appear to be a group that corrupted Gods’ people by suggesting compromise with the culture of the day.  Whie the exact issues are different, similar compromises face the church today.  Each society has its own “idols” that it expects all its citizens to worship, whether those idols be the government itself or some values or practices of society.  Furthermore, the Nicolaitans are still with us under a variety of names, for there are always people who in the name of being “realistic” or under any number of other theological justifications counsel compromise with the dominant culture.  This passage warns us that Jesus will not “buy” these justifications.  He demands nothing less than total loyalty to his own person and directions.  Anything less than this will put those who compromise in danger of his judgement.

THIS TOO WILL PASS.

Jesus-Christ-on-the-cross[2].jpg
If there is one thing, we the human race, know to be true, it is we will survive. After all, we are the crown of Gods’ creation. For there to be any other outcome would not prove we failed, but that He (God) did. We know for sure God does not fail.
Let’s look at some examples:
• When we (humans) threaten to use the divine law of unity for evil (Genesis chapter 11) God had to intervene to save us from ourselves. 4They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth”.
• When we (humans) had sank low into immoral depravity and ungodliness during the days of Noah, a preacher of righteousness, God provided safety for eight people to start again. “And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed–man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah remained, and those with him in the ark”. Genesis 7:23
• Persecution of the early church had occurred sporadically and in localized areas since its beginning. The first persecution of Christians organized by the Roman government took place under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome.
These are only a few instances, out of many, that we as Christians and, as human beings, survived.
This virus that is plaguing the whole world, this Covid-19 virus, will not win. We have faced plagues, floods, famines and persecutions before. None have proven to prevail. I can say with complete confidence that ‘THIS TOO, WILL PASS.

Nathaniel Stalling Jr

About Christianity

Christian

“I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion (faith), and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity, I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man”.

-Alexander Hamilton

 

Claim

  • Christianity is a relationship. It is the only faith that embraces the concept of God intermingling with His own creation as a human being.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”. John 1:14 NIV

From the very beginning the bible states that “It is not good for man to be alone”. Genesis 2:18;

then under the New Covenant it says “Where two or three come together in my name there I’ll be”. Matthew 18:20 NIV

Again, we read, “Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?” Ecclesiastes 4:11 NIV

https://www.gotquestions.org/Christianity-religion-relationship.html

 

Reasoning

  • Always be prepared to give an answer (Reason) for the Hope you have in what you believe.

    “But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord.

    Always be ready to give a [logical] defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident

    assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect”. 1 Peter 3:15 AMP

 

  • When the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ was discovered in a series of twelve caves around the site known as Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea in the West Bank (of the Jordan River) between 1946 and 1956 by Bedouin shepherds and a team of archeologists it gave ample proof to the validity of the Christian Scriptures.

Manuscript evidence for superior New Testament reliability

by Matt Slick
12/10/08

The New Testament is constantly under attack, and its reliability and accuracy are often contested by critics.  If the critics want to disregard the New Testament, then they must also disregard other ancient writings by Plato, Aristotle, and Homer.  This is because the New Testament documents are better-preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writings.  Because they are so numerous, they can be cross checked for accuracy . . . and they are very consistent.

There are presently 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the New Testament.1 If we were to compare the number of New Testament manuscripts to other ancient writings, we find that the New Testament manuscripts far outweigh the others in quantity.2

 

 

Author

Date
Written

Earliest Copy

Approximate Time Span between original & copy

Number of Copies

Accuracy of Copies

Lucretius

died 55 or 53 B.C.

  

1100 yrs

2

—-

Pliny

A.D. 61-113

A.D. 850

750 yrs

7

—-

Plato

427-347 B.C.

A.D. 900

1200 yrs

7

—-

Demosthenes

4th Cent. B.C.

A.D. 1100

800 yrs

8

—-

Herodotus

480-425 B.C.

A.D. 900

1300 yrs

8

—-

Suetonius

A.D. 75-160

A.D. 950

800 yrs

8

—-

Thucydides

460-400 B.C.

A.D. 900

1300 yrs

8

—-

Euripides

480-406 B.C.

A.D. 1100

1300 yrs

9

—-

Aristophanes

450-385 B.C.

A.D. 900

1200

10

—-

Caesar

100-44 B.C.

A.D. 900

1000

10

—-

Livy

59 BC-AD 17

—-

???

20

—-

Tacitus

circa A.D. 100

A.D. 1100

1000 yrs

20

—-

Aristotle

384-322 B.C.

A.D. 1100

1400

49

—-

Sophocles

496-406 B.C.

A.D. 1000

1400 yrs

193

—-

Homer (Iliad)

900 B.C.

400 B.C.

500 yrs

643

95%

New
Testament

1st Cent. A.D. (A.D. 50-100)

2nd Cent. A.D.
(c. A.D. 130 f.)

less than 100 years

5600

99.5%

As you can see, there are thousands more New Testament Greek manuscripts than any other ancient writing.  The internal consistency of the New Testament documents is about 99.5% textually pure.  That is an amazing accuracy.  In addition, there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages.  The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000.

Almost all biblical scholars agree that the New Testament documents were all written before the close of the First Century.  If Jesus was crucified in A.D. 30., then that means the entire New Testament was completed within 70 years. This is important because it means there were plenty of people around when the New Testament documents were penned–people who could have contested the writings.  In other words, those who wrote the documents knew that if they were inaccurate, plenty of people would have pointed it out.  But, we have absolutely no ancient documents contemporary with the First Century that contest the New Testament texts.

Furthermore, another important aspect of this discussion is the fact that we have a fragment of the gospel of John that dates back to around 29 years from the original writing (John Rylands Papyri A.D. 125).  This is extremely close to the original writing date.  This is simply unheard of in any other ancient writing, and it demonstrates that the Gospel of John is a First Century document.

Below is a chart with some of the oldest extant New Testament manuscripts compared to when they were originally penned.  Compare these time spans with the next closest, which is Homer’s Iliad, where the closest copy from the original is 500 years later.  Undoubtedly, that period of time allows for more textual corruption in its transmission.  How much less so for the New Testament documents?

 

 

Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

Christian, Straight Talk

Originally, Jesus birth was celebrated in the East during the ‘Feast Of Epiphany’ (January 6); but by 354 A.D, the Christmas feast had taken hold in the West and was observed on December 25.
Some Eastern Churches still, today, celebrate Christmas on January 6.
December 25th was a date selected by the Western Church (Rome). By the way, just to keep this into perspective, the Western Church, later to be known as the Catholic Church, used the political model of the Roman empire to set up and run the Church.
December 25th was originally a Mithric pagan holiday celebrating the birthday of the ‘Invincible Sun’,which coincided with Saturnalia and the winter solstice during the time Mithraism was practiced in Rome. Christians simply adjusted the symbolism of the day, declaring it the birthday of their ‘Invincible Son’.
According to events recorded in the gospel of Matthew the date of Jesus birth may actually have taken place much earlier in the year. The word ‘Christmas’ means ‘The Mass of Christ’ , and originated in the 11th century as a proper name for this feast. In New England, Christmas was outlawed until the mid-nineteenth century, and classes were held on ‘Christmas Day’ until 1870.
The use of Evergreens and Wreaths as symbols of life was an ancient custom of the Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews, among others people. Tree worship was a common religious practice among the Teutonic and Scandinavian peoples of Northern Europe before their conversion to Christianity. They decorated houses and barns with Evergreens at the New Year to scare away demons.
It is my personal opinion that when Christians celebrate Christmas it should be done to honor Christ, and not for the secular trappings that was brought into the celebration from pagan traditions.
This is what the prophet Jeremiah had to say about holding to pagan celebrations: “Thus saith the LorD, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the Palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good”. Jeremiah 10:2-5

When Prejudice Touched the House of Moses

Christian, Straight Talk, ,

When Moses appeared in the camp of Israel with Zipporah his wife and their two sons, there was great consternation among both leaders and people, for Zipporah, described in the Bible as an Ethiopian, was a darker complexion than the Israelites. Hence, there was a minor racial incident when the family came upon the scene. The marriage of Moses had been especially displeasing to Miriam, his sister, because she felt he should have chosen a wife from among the Hebrews and not marry a woman of another nation.

The King James Version of the Bible refers to her as ” an Ethiopian woman,” and the Revised Version calls her a ” Cushite woman.” It is important to say, however, that though Zipporah was not an Israelite, she was a worshiper of the true God.

The whispering campaign became so widespread that Miriam and Aaron were summoned to the Tabernacle, and had a face to face meet with Moses. The bible says, ” Jehovah came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam.” The scene was tense as God proceeded to rebuke these two who had spoken evil of His servant, him whom He had declared “faithful in all Mine house.” “Wherefore then,” God said, “were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and He departed.”

The cloud which usually hovered over the tabernacle disappeared and this sign of Gods’ displeasure was followed by a severe punishment inflicted upon Miriam. She “became leprous, white as snow.”

For those who say that discrimination and ill-treatment of people on the basis of race or color is no sin, here is a sobering passage. The act of Miriam was so repulsive to God that He came all the way from heaven to administer rebuke and punishment for her iniquity. Miriam, no doubt, felt she was exercising her freedom when she criticized Zipporah and sought to engender sentiment against her.

Although people still make thousands of speeches about freedom, there is still evidence of a good deal of misunderstanding about the real nature of freedom.