Constantine the Great

Creation of the earth and man #8 Of the Sabbath day #6 If it be necessary to keep Sunday

August 24, 2015Christadelphians11 Comments

All I need say in conclusion is, that if it be necessary to keep Sunday as the Jews were required to keep Saturday by the law of Moses, then those who make so much ado about sabbath-breaking are themselves as guilty as those they denounce for the unholy and profane.

“He that offendeth in one point is guilty of the whole.”

If they do not keep open shop, or perambulate the parks and fields, or take excursions, or go to places of public resort and amusement on the Lord’s day — yet, they light fires in the dwellings and meeting houses, they entertain their friends at comfortable warm dinners, drive to church in splendid equipages, annoy the sick and distract the sober-minded with noisy bells, bury the dead, speak their own words, etc. — all of which is a violation of the divine law which saith,

“Thou shalt not do any work, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle”;

and

“Thou shalt not speak thine own words”.

This would certainly put to silence nearly all the preachers of the day; whose “sermons”, when made by themselves, are emphatically their own in thoughts and words without dispute. It is not only ridiculous, but downright Pharisaism,* the fuss that is made about breaking the sabbath. Let the zealots** “first cast the beam out of their own eyes; and then will they see clearly to cast out the mote from the eyes of others”. If they would “keep the day to the Lord,” let them believe and obey the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus; and then “continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” on the “first day”; and cease from the works of sinful flesh (Galatians 5:19) every day of the week; and they will doubtless “delight in the Lord, and ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with the heritage of Jacob” in the Kingdom of God, as the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.

Acts 2:42 The Scriptures 1998+ (42) And they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the emissaries, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.

Galatians 5:19-23 The Scriptures 1998+ (19) And the works of the flesh are well-known, which are these: adultery,1 whoring, uncleanness, indecency, Footnote: 1Only Textus Receptus contains adultery. (20) idolatry, drug sorcery, hatred, quarrels, jealousies, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, (21) envy, murders, drunkenness, wild parties, and the like – of which I forewarn you, even as I also said before, that those who practise such as these shall not inherit the reign of Elohim.1 Footnote: 11 Cor. 6:10. (22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustworthiness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no Torah.

Of the things then which have been written under this head this is the sum.

1. The six creation-days were each as long as the seventh, whose duration is defined by the Mosaic law; and consequently the geological notion of their being six several periods of many centuries each, falls to the ground as a mere conceit of infidel philosophy.
2. The Lord God ended His work on the seventh day,. “and was refreshed” by the songs of the Morning Stars, and the joyous shouts of the Sons of God.
3. To celebrate His rest, He constituted it holy and a day of blessing. Hence it was commemorative of the past, and “a shadow of things to come”.
4. The seventh day was observed by Adam and Eve as a day of delight before they became sinners. The immediate cause of their joyousness on the day of rest is not testified. It is certain it was not a burdensome day; for sin had not yet marred their enjoyments. It was probably because of the gracious interviews granted them by the Lord God on that day; and of the revelations made to them of the things contained in the blessing pronounced upon it when He “blessed and sanctified it”.
5. There is no record, or hint, of the existence of a penal statute for not observing the seventh day, from the sanctification of it till the raining down bread from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness of Egypt.
6. The observance of the seventh day by absolute rest from every kind of work and pleasure-taking, accompanied by a peculiar sacrifice on the brazen altar of the temple, and spiritual delight in its blessedness, was its Mosaic celebration enjoined upon the Israelites, and their dependants in Palestine, and upon them alone.
7. Its profanation by citizens of the commonwealth of Israel was punishable with death by stoning.
8. Israel was especially commanded to remember the seventh day and keep it as appointed by the law; because God in creating their world brought them out of Egypt, and rested from the work of its creation when He gave them a temporary and typical rest under Joshua in the land of Canaan.

9. For an Israelite to remember the seventh day to keep it holy, spiritually as well as ceremonially, so as to obtain the blessing which it shadowed forth, he must have had an Abrahamic faith (Romans 4:12, 18–22. Read the whole chapter diligently) in the promised blessing, and have ceased or rested from the works of “sinful flesh”.
10. The blessing promised to Israelites, who were Abraham’s sons by faith as well as by flesh descent, for a spiritual observance of the seventh day (and which, until “the handwriting”, or Mosaic law, was blotted out and nailed to the cross, could not be spiritually observed and ceremonially profaned) was, that they should “delight in the Lord, ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with the heritage of Jacob their father”, when the time to fulfil the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should arrive.
11. The blessing pronounced on a national observance of the seventh day was the uninterrupted continuance of the throne of David, and great national prosperity. Its desecration to be punished by the breaking up of the commonwealth of Israel and desolation of their country.
12. The Mosaic observance of the seventh day was appointed as “a sign” between God and the twelve tribes of Israel. It was a holy day to them, and to be observed perpetually throughout their generations. (Matthew 1:17 — the forty-two generations from Abraham to Christ.)
13. It was lawful for Israelites to do good on the seventh day; but they were not permitted to be the judges of the good or evil. This was defined by the law. The priests profaned the sabbath by hard work in slaying and burning the seventh day sacrifices on the altar, yet they were blameless; because this was a good work which the Lord of the sabbath commanded them to do.
14. Having finished the work the Father had given him to do,a on the sixth day of the week, Jesus, while suspended on the accursed tree, cried with a loud voice, “It is finished!” (John 19:28–30) “All things were now accomplished”, so that the Mosaic handwriting was blotted out, being nailed with him to the cross, and taken out of the way as a rule of life. The Lord Jesus, “rested from his labours” on the seventh day in the silent tomb, and “his disciples rested according to the commandment”. (Luke 23:56)

Luke 23:56 The Scriptures 1998+ (56) And having returned, they prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the command.

He abode in his place. and did not go out of it until the sabbath was at an end.

Mark 16:1 The Scriptures 1998+ (1) And when the Sabbath was past, Miryam from Maḡdala, and Miryam the mother of Yaʽaqoḇ, and Shelomah bought spices, to go and anoint Him.

But on the eighth day, styled also the first day, God gave him liberty, (Matthew 28:2) he left the tomb, and “was refreshed”. Having “spoiled the principalities and the powers” constituted by the handwriting, he made the spoliation manifest, “triumphing over in himself” (ἐν αὐτῳ̂), that is, in his resurrection; thus, for ever delivering men from the bondage of the law, which, Peter says, “was a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear”. (Acts of the apostles 15:10) With the abolition of the Mosaic handwriting the obligation to keep the seventh day as a rule of spiritual life was cancelled as a matter of course.

Acts 15:10 The Scriptures 1998+ (10) “Now then, why do you try Elohim by putting a yoke on the neck of the taught ones which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

15. The apostles and Christians (Acts 21:20) of the Hebrew nation in Palestine continued a ceremonial observance of the Mosaic festivals (Acts 21:24–26.) (the annual atonement for sin excepted) and of the seventh day, until the destruction of the commonwealth by the Romans, on the same principle that New Testament Christians among the nations now observe Sunday and the laws; not as a means of justification before God, but as mere national customs for the regulation of society.

Acts 21:24-26 The Scriptures 1998+ (24) “Take them and be cleansed with them, and pay their expenses so that they shave their heads. And all shall know that what they have been informed about you is not so, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Torah. (25) “But concerning the gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should keep themselves from what is offered to idols, and blood, and what is strangled, and whoring.”1 Footnote: 1See 15:20. (26) Then Sha’ul took the men on the next day, and having been cleansed with them, went into the Set-apart Place to announce the completion of the days of separation – until the offering should be presented for each one of them.

16. Hebrew Christians who proposed to blend the law of Moses with that of Jesus as a spiritual rule, or means of justification, and consequently to keep holy the seventh day, were severely reproved by the apostles, who stigmatised it as “Judaizing”(ʼΙουδαΐζειν).

Galatians 2:14-16: The Scriptures 1998+ (14) But when I saw that they are not walking straight according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Kĕpha before them all, “If you, being a Yehuḏite, live as a gentile and not as the Yehuḏim, why do you compel gentiles to live as Yehuḏim?

(15) “We, Yehuḏim by nature, and not of the gentiles, sinners,
(16 ) knowing that a man is not declared right by works of Torah, but through belief in יהושע (Jeshua) Messiah, even we have believed in Messiah יהושע, in order to be declared right by belief in Messiah and not by works of Torah, because by works of Torah no flesh shall be declared right.

17. The Judaizing Christians endeavoured to impose the observance of the law upon the Gentile converts, which would have compelled them to keep holy the seventh day. But the apostles and elders of the Christian community at Jerusalem positively forbade it, and wrote to them, saying,

“We have heard that certain who went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your souls, saying, Be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment”.

On the contrary,

“it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well.” (Acts 15:24–29)

18. Upon the first day of the week (or day after the seventh, and therefore sometimes styled the eighth day), the disciples of Christ assembled to show forth his death, and to celebrate his resurrection; which, with an enduring rest from the works of “sinful flesh”, was all the sabbatizing they practised.
19. There is no law in the scriptures requiring the nations to keep this day in any manner whatever during his absence at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. So long as they continue faithless and disobedient to the gospel of the kingdom, neither nations nor individuals can present an acceptable observance of the day before the Lord; on the principle that “Jehovah is far from the wicked, whose way and sacrifice are an abomination to the Lord”: (Proverbs 15:8, 9, 26–29) — and,
20. The “first day” was Judaized by Constantine, the manchild of sin, (Revelation of apostle John 12:2, 5) and his clergy. His present representative is the Italian high priest of Papal Christendom. When his power, and that of his kings, is finally destroyed in “the burning flame”; when Israel is engrafted into their own olive again, and the nations are subdued to the glorious sceptre of the king of saints — then will this day become the holy sabbath, “blessed and sanctified” of God instead of the shadowy seventh day, which was merely “a sign” of the things which will then have come to pass.

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 24–27). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Notes:

Pharisaism or Phariseeism: Hypocritical observance of the letter of religious or moral law without regard for the spirit; sanctimoniousness.
The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought in the Holy Land during the time of Second Temple Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Pharisaic beliefs became the foundational, liturgical and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism (the term ‘Judaism’ today almost always refers to Rabbinic Judaism).
Zealots (Judea): Jewish faction traced back to the revolt of the Maccabees (2d cent. BCE) and a political movement in 1st century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jewish–Roman War (66-70). The name was first recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus as a designation for the groups called “fourth sect” or Jewish resistance fighters of the war of CE 66–73.
The extended sense of zealot as a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals is recorded from the mid 17th century.

Preceding articles:

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Creation of the earth and man #5 Of the Sabbath day #3 Ceasing from the works of the flesh

Creation of the earth and man #6 Of the Sabbath day #4 Mosaic codes, Sabbaths and Sunday

Creation of the earth and man #7 Of the Sabbath day #5 Respecting the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead

Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

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Further background articles:

Zealotry in Environmentalism
Magazine article from: Review – Institute of Public Affairs …evangelical statement on environmental diplomacy, cited green zealotry in his column in The Australian newspaper. He noted that for…capitalize upon and extrapolate genuine concerns. The modern era of zealotry in environmentalism appears to be characterized by apprehension..
Partisan Zealotry Is Subverting the Nomination Process
Newspaper article from: St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) …on nominees, for reasons of ideology and politics, with a zealotry that knows no bounds of truth. The attackers are in both the…politicians and editors are going to have to restrain their partisan zealotry. That has done more harm than the much-criticized press..
“Remember Amalek!” Vengeance, Zealotry, and Group Destruction in the Bible…
Magazine article from: Shofar “Remember Amalek!” Vengeance, Zealotry, and Group Destruction in the Bible According to Philo, Pseudo-Philo, and Josephus, by Louis H. Feldman. Cincinnati: Hebrew…
A Spitting Incident Sets off Israeli Frustration with Jewish Zealotry
Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor …suburb of Beit Shemesh is shaking Israel’s self image to the core, stirring nationwide outrage about escalating religious zealotry and creeping public segregation of women. For months, Na’ama Margolis and classmates at her school endured insults and…
Look for Old Truths about Power, Zealotry as Doyle Tale Plays Out
Newspaper article from: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) …refute the charges that clearly impugn the integrity and fairness of the 16th Judicial Circuit. Or maybe we will be reminded anew of the dangers power or zealotry can present. And not so eager to believe what sounds too good to be true.
Business daily: Israel
Sabbath
Why don’t you keep the Sabbath commandment of God?
Taxi driver’s petition – Free Church opposition to Sabbath use of public transport
SDA Cult: Ellen G. White Disagrees with Jesus
Mighty Men Of Valor, #StandUP!
Sabbath days (part two)
Be Strong Women of God!
I can buy bread, but not milk
Irrefutable Facts About the Sabbath Day
Conflict Of Interest #5: Should A Married Couple Have Sex On The Sabbath?
God’s Conspiracy Theory
Sabbath Keeping — with Jesus
Spiritual Greed
Teshuvah!
Last Words; Sabbath Thoughts (Oliver Sacks)
Did Jesus Break The Sabbath
Sabbath Reminders
Distraction of Drifting #devotionblog
Called for a Higher Purpose
The Risk of Hard Work
Life’s Work
Backwards
Flip Flops and No Watches

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Creation of the earth and man #7 Of the Sabbath day #5 Respecting the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead

August 24, 2015August 24, 2015Christadelphians10 Comments

Constantine, though not a Christian himself, paid homage to the truth so far as to compel the world to respect the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead. Hence, in 328, he ordained that the day should be kept religiously, which a Judaizing clergy construed into sabbatical observance according to the Mosaic law concerning the seventh day. This is the origin of that sabbatarianism which so ludicrously, yet mischievously, illustrates the Blue Laws of Connecticut,* the zeal of the Agnews and Plumptres of the House of Commons, and the rhapsodies of the pietists of the passing day. These well-meaning persons, whose zeal outruns their knowledge, seem not to be aware that Christ and his apostles did not promulge a civil and ecclesiastical code for the nations, when they preached the gospel of the kingdom. Their object was not to give them laws and constitutions; but to separate a peculiar people from the nations who should afterwards rule them justly and in fear of the Lord, when the dispensation of the fullness of times should be introduced.

Acts 15:14 The Scriptures 1998+ (14) “Shimʽon has declared how Elohim first visited the gentiles to take out of them a people for His Name.

1 Corinthians 6:2 The Scriptures 1998+ (2) Do you not know that the set-apart ones shall judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

2 Samuel 23:3-4 The Scriptures 1998+ (3) “The Elohim of Yisra’ĕl said, The Rock of Yisra’ĕl spoke to me, ‘One who rules over man righteously, (4) “Who rules in the fear of Elohim, Is like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, Tender grass from the earth From sunshine, from rain.’

Titus 2:11 The Scriptures 1998+ (11) For the saving Gift of Elohim has appeared to all men,

To be able to do this, these peculiars were required to be “holy, unblameable, and unreprovable before God”.

Colossians 1:22-24 The Scriptures 1998+ (22) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you set-apart, and blameless, and unreprovable before Him, (23) if indeed you continue in the belief, founded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the expectation of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed to every creature under the heaven, of which I, Sha’ul, became a servant, (24) who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in Messiah’s afflictions, for the sake of His Body, which is the assembly,

1 Thessalonians 2:19 The Scriptures 1998+ (19) For what is our expectation, or joy, or crown of boasting? Is it not even you, before our Master יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah at His coming?

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 The Scriptures 1998+ (11) And our Elohim and Father Himself, and our Master יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah, direct our way to you! (12) And the Master make you increase and overflow in love to each other and to all, as we also do to you, (13) to establish your hearts blameless in set-apartness before our Elohim and Father at the coming of our Master יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah with all His set-apart ones!

To this end instructions were delivered to them, that under the divine tuition

“they might be renewed in the spirit of their mind; and put on the new man which after God’s image is created in righteousness and true holiness ”.

As for “those without” “who receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God sent them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie”, as a punishment.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 The Scriptures 1998+ (10) and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth, in order for them to be saved. (11) And for this reason Elohim sends them a working of delusion, for them to believe the falsehood,1 Footnote: 1Eze. 20:25, John 9:39, John 12:40, Acts 7:42, Rom. 1:24-28. (12) in order that all should be judged who did not believe the truth, but have delighted in the unrighteousness.

Ezekiel 20:25 The Scriptures 1998+ (25) “And I also gave them up to laws that were not good, and right-rulings by which they would not live1. Footnote: 1Ps. 81:12, Isa. 30:28, Acts 7:42, Rom. 1:24-28, 2 Thess. 2:11.

John 9:39 The Scriptures 1998+ (39) And יהושע {Jeshua} said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those not seeing might see, and those seeing might become blind.”

John 12:40 The Scriptures 1998+ (40) “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I should heal them.”1 Footnote: 1See Mt. 13:15.

Romans 1:24-28 The Scriptures 1998+ (24) Therefore Elohim gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, to disrespect their bodies among themselves, (25) who changed the truth of Elohim into the falsehood, and worshipped and served what was created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amĕn. (26) Because of this Elohim gave them over to degrading passions. For even their women exchanged natural relations for what is against nature, (27) and likewise, the men also, having left natural relations with woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing indecency, and receiving back the reward which was due for their straying. (28) And even as they did not think it worth- while to possess the knowledge of Elohim, Elohim gave them over to a worthless mind, to do what is improper,

They are left to govern themselves by their own laws until the time arrives for Christ to take away their dominion and assume the sovereignty over them conjointly with “the people of the saints”. If they please to impose upon themselves yokes of bondage, binding themselves to keep the first day of the week according to the Mosaic law of the seventh day, they are left at liberty to do so. But for this act of “voluntary humility” they are entitled to no recompense from God, seeing that He has not required it of them. The reward due for observing a Judaized Lord’s day voluntarily inflicted upon themselves; or, the pains and penalties to which they may be entitled for its “profanation”, are such, and such only, as result from the will and pleasure of the unenlightened lawgivers of the nations. It is a wise regulation to decree a cessation from labour and toil for man and beast during one day in seven; but it betrays egregious misunderstanding of the scriptures and singular superstition to proclaim perdition to men’s souls in flaming brimstone, if they do not keep it according to the Mosaic law of the seventh day.

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., p. 23). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Notes

Numbering of days:

According the country one is living and which sort of calendar one is using the first day of the week may be different, being either the Sunday, Monday or Saturday, being named after the classical planets in Hellenistic astrology, a system introduced in the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and for the worshipping of those gods, sun (Sunday: Old English Sunnandæg), moon (Monday: Old English Mōnandæg), thunder (Thor Thursday: Old English Þūnresdæg), etc..

Saturday: the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians. Its original Anglo-Saxon rendering was Sæturnesdæg (pronounced [ˈsæturnezdæj]). In Latin it was dies Saturni, “Day of Saturn.” The Scandinavian Lørdag/Lördag deviates significantly as it has no reference to either the Norse or the Roman pantheon; it derives from old Norse laugardagr, literally “washing-day.” The German Sonnabend and the Low German words Sünnavend mean “Sunday Eve”, the German word Samstag derives from the name for Shabbat.

The Romance languages preserved the Latin names, except for the names of Sunday, which was replaced by [dies] dominicus, domenica, i.e. “Day of the Lord” and of Saturday, which was named for the Sabbath.
The Germanic peoples adapted the system introduced by the Romans but glossed their indigenous gods over the Roman deities (with the exception of Saturday) in a process known as interpretatio germanica.

Sabbatarianism:

Constantine decreed limits of Sunday work (321). Sabbatarianism was uniquely enforced by 17th-cent. English and Scottish presbyterians, especially in the Interregnum.
Strict observance of the sabbath (Hebrew shabath—to rest) as a rest-day in accordance with the fourth commandment ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy’. Christians transferred commemoration from the traditional seventh day to Sunday to honour Christ’s resurrection—by worship rather than absence of work.
Movement within Protestantism whose proponents advocate that certain observances, specifically enumerated in a code of behaviour or law, are required for Christians to properly observe the Sabbath or Sabbath principles. Its historical origins lie in Puritan Sabbatarianism, which delineated precepts for keeping Sunday holy in observance of Sabbath commandment principles.
Today we do find Christian protestant groups who hold Sabbath observance on the Sunday and do find no work may be done on that day.
In Christendom there are also groups like the Seventh-day Baptists who leave most other Sabbath considerations of observance to individual conscience.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church considers that Christians must follow the Mosaic Law in rigorous Sabbath observances based on the Hebrew Sabbath, Friday sunset through Saturday sunset.

Blue Laws of Connecticut:

* By these a woman was forbidden to kiss her child on the sabbath!
harsh, puritanical laws that regulate public morality.
Gov. Theophilus Eaton with the assistance of the Rev. John Cotton in 1655 regulated activities on Sunday for the Colony of New Haven, now part of Connecticut. After the laws were approved, they were printed in London, England, in 1656 and distributed to households in New Haven.
Reverend Samuel Peters, an Anglican forced to leave America during the Revolution. He made up examples of “Blue Laws” in a booklet in order to make America appear backwards and fanatical. List of examples of such laws were published in a book in 1782 titled A General History of Connecticut.
Repeal Day, as Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a bill Monday to end our state’s archaic Blue Laws.

Preceding articles:

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Creation of the earth and man #5 Of the Sabbath day #3 Ceasing from the works of the flesh

Creation of the earth and man #6 Of the Sabbath day #4 Mosaic codes, Sabbaths and Sunday

Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

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Further related articles:

The Pietist Impulse in Christianity
“Pietism and the Pietist Impulse” (two chapters), “Continental German Pietism” (five chapters), “The Pietist Impulse under the Conditions of Modernity” (three chapters), “Wesley the Pietist” (three chapters), “Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Trans-Atlantic Scandinavian Pietistm” (four chapters), “The Pietist Impulse in North American Christianity” (four chapters), “The Pietist Impulse in Missions and Globalizing Christianity” (three chapters), and “Benediction” (one chapter). In general, the essays share an effort to defend Pietism from charges that the movement’s emphasis upon religious experience and regeneration frequently degenerated into individualism and anti-intellectualism (for example, references to Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind [Grand Rapids, MI, 1994]), an egregious charge for authors defending and promoting pietism as the key to evangelical higher education (nine of the contributors are directly affiliated with Bethel University). …
The Pietist Critique of Inerrancy? J. A. Bengel’s Gnomon as a Test Case
The Pietists are one particular group who continue to be put forward as evidence for the novelty of the doctrine of inerrancy. Although they were not mentioned in the studies of Sandeen and Rogers and McKim, and hence did not need detailed examination in the responses of Woodbridge and others, it is frequently claimed that the Pietists (and their doctrine of Scripture) have been neglected and even suppressed by those who maintain that Scripture is inerrant. The Pietists are said to have held to a more “dynamic” and less “mechanical” view of Scripture-even deliberately rejecting an inerrant view of Scripture.
David Joris, Pietist Saint: The Appeal to Joris in the Writings of Christian Hoburg, Gottfried Arnold and Johann Wilhelm Petersen
Abstract: A growing field of scholarship has been probing the connections between late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century German Pietism and the sixteenth-century Reformation radicals. David Joris (1501-1556), a prolific sixteenth-century Anabaptist figure and reputed “arch-heretic,” was highly esteemed by German Pietist leaders, including Christian Hoburg, Gottfried Arnold and Johann Wilhelm Petersen. In his influential Unparteiische Kitchen- und Ketzer-Historie (1700) Arnold made Joris the centerpiece of his story, and he observed that many in the Low Country still valued Joris’s writings. He and others found in Joris and his writings a significant reference point and inspiration in their effort to promote a Lutheran form of spiritualist religion.
Pietism (New Dictionary of the History of Ideas | 2005 | Groetsch, Ulrich)
Like the Enlightenment, Pietism has produced an extremely diverse body of historical scholarship, with opinions ranging from a denial of its existence to precise nationally, geographically, or chronologically defined variants, as well as views that see Pietism essentially as identical with the history of modern Protestantism. Such divergent opinion has led to the introduction of categories such as reformed, classical, enthusiastic, and radical Pietism. The picture often becomes more complex when the scope of Pietism is expanded to include other religions such as Judaism, where Hasidism appears at least on the surface as a similar phenomenon. But even within Christianity, apparently similar movements such as French Jansenism or Spanish Quietism emerged almost at the same time.
Pietism
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Pietism (pī´ətĬzəm), a movement in the Lutheran…regeneration tended to undermine orthodoxy, and Pietism was severely attacked.After Spener…August Hermann Francke, but after his time Pietism declined. Its effect was strongest in…
Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World | 2004 | Driedger, Michael D.on Pietism
Historians have had difficulty agreeing about a definition for Pietism. A major reason is that the term has been controversial since its first use in German Lutheran territories in the 1670s. Today historians debate how narrowly or broadly to define the subject. However, there is general agreement that, although in a narrow sense a Lutheran (and in part also a Reformed Protestant) phenomenon of the later seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, Pietism had roots in the concerns of those sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Christians who wanted to realize the ideals of discipline and godliness in their personal and collective lives.
An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern…
Magazine article from: Currents in Theology and Mission An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of…Protestant churches is the legacy of Pietism. All too typically the standard narrative…both Lutheran and Reformed) and Pietism, with their colorful cast of characters…
The Pietist Impulse in Christianity
Magazine article from: The Catholic Historical Review …further leavened by strains of German Pietism, Anglo-American revivalism, Wesleyanism…further note the range of understandings of Pietism from that of a specific historical-theological…culturally disparate phenomena such as Pietism, Puritanism, Wesleyanism, revivalism..
Book Review: An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the…
Magazine article from: Church History …omitted.)An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern…difficulty scholars have faced in defining pietism, as well as the inevitable disappointment…Schantz announces forthrightly: “German Pietism represents a key, but forgotten, strand..
Confessionalism and Pietism: Religious Reform in Early Modern Europe
Magazine article from: The Catholic Historical Review Confessionalism and Pietism: Religious Reform in Early Modern Europe…editor’s project “Cultural History of Pietism and Revivalism, c. 1650-c. 1850…emphasis on the international dimensions of Pietism as well as its complicated relationship…

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015Christadelphians17 Comments

Continuation of Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

The ordinances of the law of Moses are styled by Paul “the rudiments”, or “elements of the world”, which, in Galatians, he also terms “weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they desired again to be in bondage”. They evinced this desire by “observing days, and months, and times, and years”;(Galatians 4:3, 5, 9, 10) not being satisfied with the things of Christ, but seeking to combine the Mosaic institutions with the gospel.

Gal 4:3-5 The Scriptures 1998+ (3) So we also, when we were children, were under the elementary matters of the world, being enslaved. (4) But when the completion of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Torah, (5) to redeem those who were under Torah, in order to receive the adoption as sons.

Gal 4:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+ (9) But now after you have known Elohim, or rather are known by Elohim, how do you turn again to the weak and poor elementary matters,1 to which you wish to be enslaved again? Footnote: 1See v.3, Col. 2:8 & 20. (10) You observe days and months and seasons and years.

This was Judaizing, and the first step to that awful apostasy by which the world has been cursed for so many ages. When the Mosaic constitution, as “the representation of the knowledge and the truth”, had “waxed old” by the manifestation of the substance to a sufficient extent to nullify it, it “vanished away” by being “cast down to the ground” by the Roman power, and with it the law of the seventh day.

Even before its abolition, Paul expressed his fear of the Galatians, “lest he should have bestowed labour upon them in vain”, seeing that they were becoming zealous of the ordinances of the law. They seemed not to understand that the Mosaic economy was only a temporary constitution of things, “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come”; that when he came, “he redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them”; and that therefore they had nothing to fear, nor to hope for from keeping, or transgressing its methods. They had got it into their heads that “except they were circumcised and kept the law of Moses”, as well as believed and obeyed the gospel of the kingdom, they could not be saved.

Mat 12:5 The Scriptures 1998+ (5) “Or did you not read in the Torah that on the Sabbath the priests in the Set-apart Place profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?

Therefore they “desired to be under the law”, and began to busy themselves about “keeping the sabbath”, and doing other works which Moses had enjoined upon Israel. Paul was very much distressed at this, and describes himself as “travailing in birth again until Christ be formed in them”. They had been delivered from “the yoke of bondage”, by putting on Christ; but by seeking to renew their connexion with Moses’ law, they were selling their birth-right for a mess of pottage.

“I say unto you”,

saith Paul,

“that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace”.

A partial observance of the law can do no one any good. If he kept the sabbath in the most approved manner, but neglected the sacrifices, or ate swine’s flesh, he was as accursed as a thief or a robber; for to one under the law it saith,

“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which axe written in the book of the law to do them”;

hence even the sinless Jesus was cursed by it, because he was crucified; for it is written,

“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”

Gal 3:4 The Scriptures 1998+ (4) Have you suffered so much in vain – if indeed in vain?
Gal 5:4 The Scriptures 1998+ (4) You who are declared right by Torah have severed yourselves from Messiah, you have fallen from favour.

What hope then is there for Jew or Gentile of escaping the curse of the law, seeing that from the very nature of things connected with the present state of Jerusalem it is impossible to observe it, save in the few particulars of “meat and drink, or in respect of the sabbath” partially, etc. The observance of the seventh day was regulated by the Mosaic law, and the penalties due to its “desecration”, or “profanation”, are pronounced by it alone; but it is dear that the law being taken out of the way, or abolished, by Jesus, who nailed it to his cross, there remain no more retributions for the non-observance of its appointments; and therefore there is no transgression in working or pleasure-taking, or in speaking one’s own words on the seventh day.

On the first day of the creation-week God said,

“Let there be light, and there was light”;

so on the first day of the week “The True Light” came forth from the darkness of the tomb “like dew from the womb of the morning”. It is a day to be much remembered by his people, because it assures them of their justification “in him”, of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of his ruling or “judging the world in righteousness” as Jehovah’s king, when they shall also reign with him as kings and priests to God.

Rom 4:22-25 The Scriptures 1998+ (22) Therefore also “it was reckoned to him for righteousness.” (23) And not because of him alone was it written that it was reckoned to him, (24) but also because of us, to whom it shall be reckoned, to us who believe in Him who raised up יהושע {Jeshua} our Master from the dead, (25) who was delivered up because of our trespasses, and was raised for us to be declared right.

Rom 8:11 The Scriptures 1998+ (11) And if the Spirit of Him who raised יהושע {Jeshua} from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Messiah from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you.

1Co 15:14 The Scriptures 1998+ (14) And if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclaiming is empty, and your belief also empty,

1Co 15:20 The Scriptures 1998+ (20) But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep.

Act 17:31 The Scriptures 1998+ (31) because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed,1 having given proof of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Footnote: 1See 10:42.

Rev 5:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+ (9) And they sang a renewed song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals, because You were slain, and have redeemed us to Elohim by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, (10) and made us sovereigns and priests to our Elohim, and we shall reign upon the earth.”1 Footnote: 1Dan. 7:18-27.

This day is also notable on account of the special interviews which occurred between Jesus and his disciples after his resurrection.

Joh 20:19 The Scriptures 1998+ (19) When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week,and when the doors were shut where the taught ones met, for fear of the Yehuḏim, יהושע {Jehsua} came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace to you.”

Joh 20:26 The Scriptures 1998+ (26) And after eight days His taught ones were again inside, and T’oma with them. יהושע {Jehsua} came, the doors having been shut, and He stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”

He ascended to heaven on this day, even the forty-third from his crucifixion; and seven days after, that is the fiftieth, being “the day of Pentecost”, the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and the gospel of the kingdom preached for the first time in his name.
Power being in the hands of their enemies, the Christians of the Hebrew nation still continued to observe the seventh day according to the custom. Hence we find the apostles frequenting the synagogues on the sabbath days and reasoning with the people out of the scriptures.

Act 17:2 The Scriptures 1998+ (2) And according to his practice, Sha’ul went in unto them, and for three Sabbaths was reasoning with them from the Scriptures,

Act 17:17 The Scriptures 1998+ (17) Therefore, indeed, he was reasoning in the congregation with the Yehuḏim and with the gentile worshippers, and in the market-place daily with those who met there.

Act 18:4 The Scriptures 1998+ (4) And he was reasoning in the congregation every Sabbath, and won over both Yehuḏim and Greeks.

Act 19:8 The Scriptures 1998+ (8) And having gone into the congregation he spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the reign of Elohim.

To have done otherwise would have been to create an unnecessary prejudice, and to let slip one of the best opportunities of introducing the gospel to the attention of the Jewish public. They did not forsake the synagogues until they were expelled. While they frequented these, however, on the seventh day, they assembled themselves together with the disciples whose assemblies constituted the churches of the saints and of God. They ordained elders over these societies, and “taught them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded them”.

Mat 28:20 The Scriptures 1998+ (20) teaching them to guard all that I have commanded you. And see, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Amĕn.

Act 2:42 The Scriptures 1998+ (42) And they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the emissaries, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.

Act 14:21-23 The Scriptures 1998+ (21) And having brought the Good News to that city, and having made many taught ones, they returned to Lustra, and Ikonion, and Antioch, (22) strengthening the beings of the taught ones, encouraging them to continue in the belief, and that through many pressures we have to enter the reign of Elohim. (23) And having appointed elders in every assembly, having prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Master in whom they had believed.

In his letter to the Hebrew Christians, Paul exhorts them “not to forsake the assembling of themselves together”

Heb 10:19-25 The Scriptures 1998+ (19) So, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Set-apart Place by the blood of יהושע {Jeshua}, (20) by a new and living way which He instituted for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, (21) and having a High Priest over the House of Elohim, (22) let us draw near with a true heart in completeness of belief, having our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies washed with clean water. (23) Let us hold fast the confession of our expectation without yielding, for He who promised is trustworthy. (24) And let us be concerned for one another in order to stir up love and good works,1 Footnote: 1Mt. 16:27. (25) not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging, and so much more as you see the Day coming near.

Such an exhortation as this implies a stated time and place of assembly. On what day, then, did the churches of the saints meet to exhort one another so as to provoke to love and to good works ? Certainly not on the seventh day, for then the apostles were in the synagogues. What day then more appropriate than the first day of the week ? Now it cannot be affirmed that the saints were commanded to meet on this day, because there is no testimony to that effect in the New Testament. But it is beyond dispute that they did assemble themselves together on the first day of the week, and the most reasonable inference is that they did so in obedience to the instruction of the apostles, from whose teaching they derived all their faith and practice, which constituted them the disciples of Jesus.

To keep the first day of the week to the Lord is possible only for the saints. There is no law, except the emperor Constantine’s, that commands sinners to keep holy the first, or eighth, day, or Sunday, as the Gentiles term it. For a sinner to keep this day unto the Lord he must become one of the Lord’s people. He must believe the gospel of the kingdom and name of Christ, and become obedient to it, before any religious service he can offer will be accepted. He must come under law to Christ by putting on Christ before he can keep the Lord’s day. Having become a Christian, if he would keep the day to the Lord, he must assemble with a congregation of New Testament saints, and assist in edifying and provoking them to love and good works, in showing forth the death of Jesus, in giving thanks to the Father, in celebrating the resurrection of Christ, and in praising and blessing God. Under the gospel, or “law of liberty”, he is subjected to no “yoke of bondage” concerning a sabbath day. It is his delight when an opportunity presents, to celebrate in this way the day of the resurrection. He requires no penal statutes to compel him to a formal and disagreeable self-denial, or “duty”; for it is his meat and drink to do the will of his Father who is in heaven.

Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 17–20). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Preceding article:

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Additional reading:

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Necessity of a revelation of creation 14 Searching the scriptures

July 13, 2015Christadelphians15 Comments

English: Diagram of the Holy Trinity based on ... — Diagram of the Holy Trinity based on the Hebrew word רוח “air, wind, spirit” having feminine grammatical gender in the Hebrew language (though in fact in a significant minority of its occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, the word actually has masculine grammatical gender). Could be considered “non-orthodox” by the criteria of the traditional mainstream of Christian doctrine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Search the scriptures with the teachableness of a little child, and thy labour will not be in vain. Cast away to the owls and to the bats the traditions of men, and the prejudices indoctrinated into thy mind by their means; make a whole burnt offering of their creeds, confessions, catechisms, and articles of religion; and, after the example of the Ephesian disciples, hand over your books of curious theological arts, and burn them before all. These mountains of rubbish have served the purpose of a dark and barbarous age; the word, the word of the living God alone, can meet the necessities of the times.

Let the example of the noble-minded Bereans be ours. They searched the scriptures daily to see if the things taught by the apostles were worthy of belief; “therefore they believed”. If, then, not even the preaching of an apostle was credited unaccompanied by scriptural investigation, is it not infinitely more incumbent on us that we should bring to a like test the opinions and precepts of the uninspired and fallible professional theologists of our day? Let us believe nothing that comes from “the pulpit”, “the altar”, or the press, not demonstrated by the grammatical sense of the scriptures. Let us be contented with nothing less than a “thus it is written”, and a “thus saith the Lord”; for He has laid it down in His law, that no one is worthy of belief who does not speak after His rule.

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to THIS WORD, it is because there is no light in them.”

If then their light be darkness, how great is that darkness.

The scriptures can do everything for us in relation to the light. This is known, felt, and keenly appreciated by all interested in the support of error. Hence, in the days of Diocletian, one of the pagan predecessors of Constantine, a decree was issued commanding the surrender of all copies of the Holy Scriptures: for it was found that so long as they obtained circulation the Christian doctrine could never be suppressed. The Popes, as deadly, and more insidious, enemies of the truth than the pagan Roman emperors, followed the example of Diocletian. The Bible and popery are as mutually hostile as the light of the sun and the thick darkness of Egypt that might be felt. But it is not paganism and popery alone that are practically hostile to a free and untrammelled investigation of the word of God. The Protestant world, while it deludes itself with the conceit that “the Bible, the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants”—while it spends its thousands for its circulation among the nations in their native tongues — is itself hostile to the belief and practice of what it proclaims. The “Bible alone” is not its religion; for if it were, why encumber its professors with the “Common Prayer”, Thirty-nine Articles, and all the other “notions” of a similar kind? To believe and practise the Bible alone would be a sufficient ground of exclusion from all “orthodox churches”. When Chillingworth uttered the sentiment, there was more truth in it than at this day; but now it is as far from the fact as that Protestantism is the religion of Christ.

To protest against an error, such as Romanism, and to affirm that every man has a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, is a very different thing to believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and walking in all the institutions of the Lord blameless. To do this would unchristianize a man in the estimation of State churches and sectarian denominations; for the Bible religion requires a man to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints”, which in these times cannot be done without upheaving the very foundations of the self-complacent, self-glorifying, and self-laudatory communions of the antipapal constitution of things. It is true that no man or power has a right to interfere between God and the conscience; but it is also true that no man has a right to worship God as he pleases. This is a Protestant fallacy. Man has a right to worship God only in the way God has Himself appointed.

“In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

This is the judgment pronounced by the wisdom of God upon all worship which He has not instituted. He declares it to be vain worship; concerning which the apostle to the Gentiles says:

“Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath; let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. Be not subject to dogmatisms (δογματίζεσθε) after the commandments and traditions of men; which things have indeed a show of wisdom in WILL-WORSHIP and humility.”

These exhortations apply to all faith and worship, Papal and Protestant. If Popery judges men in meats, Protestantism doth the same in drinks, and in the Sabbath; they both judge men in holy-days and “movable feasts”; and though Protestantism repudiates the worshipping of angels, it proclaims in its “fasts”, “preparations”, “concerts”, etc. a voluntary humility, anti celebration of “saints and martyrs”, renowned in legendary tales for “the pride that apes humility”. Let the reader search the scriptures from beginning to end, and he will nowhere find such systems of faith and worship as those comprehended in the Papal and Protestant systems. The gospel of the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus is not preached among them; they are communions which are uncircumcised of heart; theological dissertations on texts, called “sermons”, are substituted for “reasoning out of the scriptures”—for “expounding and testifying the Kingdom of God, and persuading men concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets”. Puseyism*, Swedenborgianism*, and all sorts of isms, to which in apostolic times the world was a total stranger, run riot among them; the lusts of the flesh, of the eye, and of the pride of life have extinguished even the energy and zeal of the antipapal rebellion out of which they have arisen; they are dead, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and therefore the time is come to cut them off as a rotten branch from the good olive tree. Let therefore every man that would eschew the wrath which is begun, and who would become an heir of the kingdom of God, save himself from the unholy, lifeless, and effete denominations of these “Latter Days”. By remaining in them, a man partakes of their evil deeds, and subjects himself to their evil influences. The word of man has silenced the word of God in their midst; and religion has degenerated into a professional commodity sold for cash according to the taste which most prevails in the soul-makers of the world.

Let us then “cease from men, whose breath is in their nostrils; for wherein are they to be accounted of?” “They be blind leaders of the blind”, in whom is no light, because they speak not according to the law and the testimony of God. Let us repudiate their dogmatisms; let us renounce their mysteries; and let us declare our independence of all human authority in matters of faith and practice outside the word of God. The scriptures are able to make us wise, which the traditions of “divines” are not. Let us then come to these scriptures, for we have the assurance that he who seeks shall find. But we must seek by the fight of scripture, and not permit that fight to be obscured by high thoughts and vain imaginations which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Great is the consolation that “the wise shall understand”, and “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament”. Be this then our happiness, to understand, believe, and do, that we may be blessed in our deed, and attain to the glorious liberty and manifestation of the sons of God.

To the Bible then let us turn, as to “a light shining in a dark place”, and, with humility, teachableness, and independence of mind, let us diligently inquire into the things which it reveals for the obedience and confirmation of faith. The object before us then will be, to present such a connected view of this truthful and wonderful book as will open the reader’s eyes, and enable him to understand it, and expound it to others, that he may become “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”; and be able intelligently to “contend for the faith”; and by “turning many to righteousness, to shine as the stars for ever and ever”.
In effecting this purpose, we must proceed as we would with any other book, or in teaching any of the arts and sciences; namely, begin at the beginning, or with the elements of things. This was the method adopted by the spirit of God in the instruction of the Israelites by Moses. He began His revelations by giving them, and us through them, an account of the creation of the heavens and the earth; of animals; and of man. This then would seem to be the proper place for us to start from; and as we have the system completely revealed, which they had not, we may extend our enquiries into the reason, or philosophy of things farther than they. Be this, then, our commencement; and may the Lord himself prosper our endeavours to decipher and understand His word, and to disentangle it from the crude traditions and dogmatisms of contemporary theologies, useful in their beginnings as “oppositions” to the Mystery of Iniquity, but now “waxed old and ready to vanish away” with the thing they have antagonized; but which, though consumptive of the civil and ecclesiastical tyranny of the Image of the Beast, have by their glosses in effect taken from the people “the Key of Knowledge”, and thus shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men. Our endeavour will be to restore this “Key”, that they may understand “the mysteries of the kingdom”, and “have right, to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city”. And this we will do if God permit.

– #13 + 14: Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 3–9). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Editorial Notes:

1: Puseyism or tractarianism from the first stage of the Oxford movement, with the English clergyman and scholar Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882) fellow of Oriel College (1823) and canon of Christ Church. Late in 1833 Pusey gravitated toward the Oxford Movement. He wrote tracts on the advantages of fasting (1834) and on baptism (1836) in the series Tracts for the Times. From 1836, Pusey was editor of the influential Library of Fathers and contributed several studies of patristic works. When Newman withdrew from the Oxford movement in 1841, Pusey became its leader. His influence in the High Church party was widened when he was suspended from preaching for two years because of the ideas expressed in his sermon, “The Holy Eucharist, a Comfort to the Penitent” (1843). He advocated the doctrine of the Real Presence, which holds that the body and blood of Christ are actually (and not symbolically or figuratively) present in the sacrament. From the standpoint of public prestige, his adhesion to the Oxford Movement, Newman said, supplied it with “a position and a name.” Pusey fought a rearguard action to prevent others following and his supporters, dedicated to restrained and respectable high churchmanship, became known as ‘Puseyites’. He refused to be drawn into the ritualism which for many was the natural consequence of the Oxford movement, but supported the revival of Anglican monastic life, particularly for women. He was unique in England in his deep knowledge of contemporary German theology and was also a prodigious scholar of Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Tractarians insisted on the church’s authority to teach catholic truth to the English as the divinely commissioned agent of Christ and his apostles, and their exploration of this authority began a movement which decisively affected English Christianity’s understanding of sanctity, worship, and religious practice. The furore provoked by Newman‘s Tract 90, on the Thirty-Nine Articles, ended the series and his reception into the Roman catholic church closed the tractarian phase, but their influence set the Anglican pace for the rest of the century. {Clyde Binfield, The Oxford Companion to British History | 2002}

2: Swedenborgianism blended Christianity with pantheism and theosophy after the teachings of the Swedish scientist, philosopher, and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). In his writings, he predicted that God would replace the traditional Christian Church, establishing a ‘New Church’, which would worship God in one person: Jesus Christ. The movement was founded on the belief that God explained the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures to Swedenborg as a means of revealing the truth of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Swedenborg claimed divine inspiration for his writings and followers believe that Swedenborg witnessed the Last Judgment in the spiritual world, along with the inauguration of the New Church. {Doc. II, page 404}

Researcher D. Michael Quinn suggests that Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism, was influenced by the writings of Swedenborg. {Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}

Preceding articles:

Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man

Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things

Necessity of a revelation of creation 9 Searching the Scriptures

Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God

Necessity of a revelation of creation 12 Words assembled for wisdom and instruction

Necessity of a revelation of creation 13 Getting wisdom

Additional reading:

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Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God

May 5, 2015Christadelphians42 Comments

Image of the Dutch Reformation iconoclasm (Bee... — Image of the Dutch Reformation iconoclasm (Beeldenstorm) Image from: De eerste jaren der Nederlandsche Revolutie (1555-1568), Elsevier, Rotterdam 1882 Reproduction in: Het beleg van Haarlem; Haarlem’s heldenstrijd in beeld en woord 1572-1572, F. De Witt Huberts, Oceanus, 1944 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many in this world hate instruction from the Most High Elohim Hashem Jehovah, and throw God’s Words behind them, refusing correction and rejecting His commands (Psalm 50:17). Many rebelled and disobeyed God’s laws. Some even killed God’s prophets, who warned them to turn back to God, and they cursed God’s Holy Name. There were those who like king David guarded God His misvoth (or commandments) and walked after Him with all their heart, to work only, straight in God His Eyes. But many others liked men’s words and and vilified to work above all who are at their face and went and worked other elohim and molten to vex the Most High Elohim and to bow down in front of graven images in front of beings they called ‘god‘.

Neh 9:26-27 NHEBJE “Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies. (27) Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. In the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries.

1Ki 14:9 NHEBJE but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made you other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back:

Today even in Christendom we can find many people bowing down in front of crucifixes or statues of Jesus or other persons. Those people call themselves also Christians but they seem to forget what God, the Adonai who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, Himself said about such a worshipping with bowing down in front of graven images.

Exo 20:2-7 NHEBJE “I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3) You shall have no other gods before me. (4) “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (5) you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, (6) and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (7) “You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain, for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

This God Who created the heavens and the earth demanded to follow His instructions.

Pro 4:13 NHEBJE Take firm hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

Receive God His instruction rather than silver; God’s knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies. All the things that may be desired can’t be compared to it. (Proverbs 8:10-11)

Pro 13:13 NHEBJE Whoever despises instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command will be rewarded.

The law of truth should be found in followers of Christ but throughout history we can see that there were many who preferred to follow teachings by men who called themselves theologians. already at the time of the apostles false prophets came unto the scene and a few centuries later the ‘church’ sold her soul to the Roman Empire fulfilling the wishes of Caesar Constantine instead of keeping faithful to God’s commandments of honouring only One God Who is One.

When centuries later some rebellious priests found that the Bible alone (sola Scriptura) should have everything to say and to instruct and condemned the Roman Catholic Church, soon they too went the same way as that church making their own doctrines. A 2014 survey on American Evangelical beliefs found that most American evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical by some of the most important councils of the early church. Many came to understand that their personal (“alone”) interpretation of Scripture would be authoritative instead of taking the words like they are written in the Bible (Old and New testament) for what they really express.

G. K. Chesterton remind us that it is arrogant to ignore the teachings of our forefathers in the faith, but we should be weary to find who was in the faith. They faced many of the same theological questions we do today, and their answers have stood the test of time, but that does not mean yet that their answers are the right ones. When we look at the previous theologians their writings we must remember that bishops and councils, after all, can err. We all should also remember that politics played a big part in it as well. That’s how the Nicene Creed came to be.

To protest against an error, such as Romanism, and to affirm that every man has a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, is a very different thing to believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and walking in all the institutions of the Lord blameless. To do this would unchristianize a man in the estimation of State churches and sectarian denominations; for the Bible religion requires a man to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints”, which in these times cannot be done without upheaving the very foundations of the self-complacent, self-glorifying, and self-laudatory communions of the antipapal constitution of things. It is true that no man or power has a right to interfere between God and the conscience; but it is also true that no man has a right to worship God as he pleases. This is a Protestant fallacy. Man has a right to worship God only in the way God has Himself appointed. “In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” This is the judgment pronounced by the wisdom of God upon all worship which He has not instituted. He declares it to be vain worship; concerning which the apostle to the Gentiles says: “Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath; let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. Be not subject to dogmatisms (δογματίζεσθε) after the commandments and traditions of men; which things have indeed a show of wisdom in WILL-WORSHIP and humility.”
These exhortations apply to all faith and worship, Papal and Protestant. If Popery judges men in meats, Protestantism doth the same in drinks, and in the Sabbath; they both judge men in holy-days and “movable feasts”; and though Protestantism repudiates the worshipping of angels, it proclaims in its “fasts”, “preparations”, “concerts”, etc. a voluntary humility, anti celebration of “saints and martyrs”, renowned in legendary tales for “the pride that apes humility”. Let the reader search the scriptures from beginning to end, and he will nowhere find such systems of faith and worship as those comprehended in the Papal and Protestant systems. The gospel of the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus is not preached among them; they are communions which are uncircumcised of heart; theological dissertations on texts, called “sermons”, are substituted for “reasoning out of the scriptures”—for “expounding and testifying the Kingdom of God, and persuading men concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets”. Puseyism, Swedenborgianism, and all sorts of isms, to which in apostolic times the world was a total stranger, run riot among them; the lusts of the flesh, of the eye, and of the pride of life have extinguished even the energy and zeal of the antipapal rebellion out of which they have arisen; they are dead, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and therefore the time is come to cut them off as a rotten branch from the good olive tree. Let therefore every man that would eschew the wrath which is begun, and who would become an heir of the kingdom of God, save himself from the unholy, lifeless, and effete denominations of these “Latter Days”. By remaining in them, a man partakes of their evil deeds, and subjects himself to their evil influences. The word of man has silenced the word of God in their midst; and religion has degenerated into a professional commodity sold for cash according to the taste which most prevails in the soul-makers of the world.so
Let us then “cease from men, whose breath is in their nostrils; for wherein are they to be accounted of?” “They be blind leaders of the blind”, in whom is no light, because they speak not according to the law and the testimony of God. Let us repudiate their dogmatisms; let us renounce their mysteries; and let us declare our independence of all human authority in matters of faith and practice outside the word of God. The scriptures are able to make us wise, which the traditions of “divines” are not. Let us then come to these scriptures, for we have the assurance that he who seeks shall find. But we must seek by the fight of scripture, and not permit that fight to be obscured by high thoughts and vain imaginations which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Great is the consolation that “the wise shall understand”, and “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament”. Be this then our happiness, to understand, believe, and do, that we may be blessed in our deed, and attain to the glorious liberty and manifestation of the sons of God.
To the Bible then let us turn, as to “a light shining in a dark place”, and, with humility, teachableness, and independence of mind, let us diligently inquire into the things which it reveals for the obedience and confirmation of faith. The object before us then will be, to present such a connected view of this truthful and wonderful book as will open the reader’s eyes, and enable him to understand it, and expound it to others, that he may become “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”; and be able intelligently to “contend for the faith”; and by “turning many to righteousness, to shine as the stars for ever and ever”.
In effecting this purpose, we must proceed as we would with any other book, or in teaching any of the arts and sciences; namely, begin at the beginning, or with the elements of things. This was the method adopted by the spirit of God in the instruction of the Israelites by Moses. He began His revelations by giving them, and us through them, an account of the creation of the heavens and the earth; of animals; and of man. This then would seem to be the proper place for us to start from; and as we have the system completely revealed, which they had not, we may extend our enquiries into the reason, or philosophy of things farther than they. Be this, then, our commencement; and may the Lord himself prosper our endeavours to decipher and understand His word, and to disentangle it from the crude traditions and dogmatisms of contemporary theologies, useful in their beginnings as “oppositions” to the Mystery of Iniquity, but now “waxed old and ready to vanish away” with the thing they have antagonized; but which, though consumptive of the civil and ecclesiastical tyranny of the Image of the Beast, have by their glosses in effect taken from the people “the Key of Knowledge”, and thus shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men. Our endeavour will be to restore this “Key”, that they may understand “the mysteries of the kingdom”, and “have right, to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city”. And this we will do if God permit.

Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 6–9). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Preceding articles:

Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

Necessity of a revelation of creation 5 Getting understanding by Word of God 3

Necessity of a revelation of creation 6 Getting understanding by Word of God 4

Necessity of a revelation of creation 7 Getting understanding by Word of God 5

Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people

Necessity of a revelation of creation 9 Searching the Scriptures

Necessity of a revelation of creation 10 Instructions for insight and wisdom

Want (activeinspiration.wordpress.com)
In with the New (joyfullnuggets.wordpress.com)
Psalm 89 (embodiedtorah.wordpress.com)
The Strange Inclination of Christian Church Institutions Against Israel (cinchreview.com)
Pope Francis Told by Doctors to Revamp Diet in Wake of Weight Gain (guardianlv.com)
Why G.K. Chesterton’s ‘Everlasting Man’ has an everlasting appeal… (thechristianreview.com)
Strangers in the Land (munsonmissions.org)
An imaginary interview with a Christian… (nytimes.com)
Acharei Mot: Live (anitasilvert.wordpress.com)
Solution for Willing hearts filled with gifts (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)

Want (activeinspiration.wordpress.com)
In with the New (joyfullnuggets.wordpress.com)
Psalm 89 (embodiedtorah.wordpress.com)
The Strange Inclination of Christian Church Institutions Against Israel (cinchreview.com)
Pope Francis Told by Doctors to Revamp Diet in Wake of Weight Gain (guardianlv.com)
Why G.K. Chesterton’s ‘Everlasting Man’ has an everlasting appeal… (thechristianreview.com)
Strangers in the Land (munsonmissions.org)
An imaginary interview with a Christian… (nytimes.com)
Acharei Mot: Live (anitasilvert.wordpress.com)
Solution for Willing hearts filled with gifts (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)

Want (activeinspiration.wordpress.com)
In with the New (joyfullnuggets.wordpress.com)
Psalm 89 (embodiedtorah.wordpress.com)
The Strange Inclination of Christian Church Institutions Against Israel (cinchreview.com)
Pope Francis Told by Doctors to Revamp Diet in Wake of Weight Gain (guardianlv.com)
Why G.K. Chesterton’s ‘Everlasting Man’ has an everlasting appeal… (thechristianreview.com)
Strangers in the Land (munsonmissions.org)
An imaginary interview with a Christian… (nytimes.com)
Acharei Mot: Live (anitasilvert.wordpress.com)
Solution for Willing hearts filled with gifts (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)

Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015Christadelphians36 Comments

In the beginning there was only emptiness and the Untold Greatness of the Supreme Adonai (a title of reverence for God, serving also as a substitute pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton יהוה {Jehovah}) Elohim Creator God of gods. His Voice echoed in the universal space and thus arose the things that He had formed. We wished His Voice echoed through eternity as He is infinite. He spoke and something came from nothing into life and the Divine Creator wished that His creation would hear His voice.

When He had created man in His own image, and blown His breath in the nostrils of this man, the 1° Adam came into life with blood running through his veins, and could hear His creation talking to Him, giving him the surroundings to live in and to give names for all the things man could find in his life. Though not so happy on his own man requested a partner, so God provided a mannin (the female, part of the red blooded man) out of his rib. This woman, Eve, also could hear the Voice of God and live with her partner in the Garden of Eden, which was a perfect world. This female creature got a dignified role in the creation, and had to bring forth other human beings to populate the earth.

We may understand God expected man and mannin to be been a faithful to each other and to Him. He had organised the system, having created space, heavens, planets, solar systems, time and as such an organised system of things and asked them also to organise their life by first calling the things by name. They had to take care of mother earth.

God created things with the appearance of age. This allows a specific ‘literal’ interpretation of Genesis 1, 2. It is suggested that miracles such as the turning of water into wine indicate that the miraculously provided wine was created with an apparent age. This idea is extended for example to God creating trees with apparent annual rings that God had fabricated. God organised the whole system so that everything would become clear as soon as man got more insight in those things. Several different combinations of radioactive isotopes in the rocks independently indicate an age of several billion years, that way people can come to place the things in the time indication they are following, which can be different now from one group of humans to an other. Today we may find the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish, an Islamic and Julian calendar in use, making it that for each of these population we are in ‘an other time’.

God normally provided sun, moon and darkness to provide a time indication. This a lunisolar calendar is still being followed by the Jews. The time indication given by God for man is different than God’s time indication for Himself, being one day a thousand years.

Gen 1:5 NSB God called the light day. He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

2Pe 3:8 NSB Do not forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (Psalm 90:1, 4)

Psa 90:4 NSB In your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday, already past like an hour in the night.

In the time span of God man could live freely but had to respect the days of God. By time passing, days were added and as such man was requested to organise special days for God. These holy days could be determined by the the dates on that calendar of the People of God or Hebrew calendar. With it people can organise for Jewish holidays and for Christian holidays, to get the dates right for the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits, and daily Psalm readings, among many ceremonial uses. In Israel, it is still used for religious and for civil purposes, providing also a time frame for agriculture. Although the civil calendar usage has been steadily declining in favour of the Gregorian or Western calendar also sometimes called the Christian calendar, which is internationally the most widely used civil calendar.
The Julian Day calendar, introduced by the authority of Julius Caesar in 46 bce, brings a system of astronomical dating allowing the difference between two dates to be calculated more easily than conventional civil calendars with their uneven months and is still used by used by some Orthodox Churches. Dates in the Julian calendar are sometimes designated “Old Style.”

God gave preparation days and special days to remember and to take rest. For mankind it had to be followed and to be a “legacy,” or “inheritance” (nachala) (Time (of) Year) Later in history we shall see that the Roman emperor Constantine organised the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, one of the key concerns was to determine a date for celebrating Easter that would be the same across the board for all Christians and in accordance with the celebration of the god of fertility Eostre, the namesake of the festival of Easter. Constantine wanted to have all the Christian festivities falling together with those of the Romans and having the Christians to accept the Roman tri-godhead celebrations in their meetings. The determination of a dating method for the pagan feast which later became a holiday in many Christian communities called Easter, got all the different Christian communities who came to accept the tri-une godhead to celebrate Easter on the exact same day, whilst the other true Christians kept on celebrating God’s Days but got it more difficult to know which day had to be celebrated. As such the Romans and those who got more power from emperor Constantine hoped they would not be able to follow God’s holidays and soon would join the public holidays.

But before the adversaries of God had taken most in control god took care that His Word would keep sounding all over the world at all times. The order and organisation offered to man by god was rejected by the man and mannin, they questioning His right to govern everything and to decide everything, being Master over everything and especially over the Knowledge of good and evil (with the Tree of good and evil). The order of hierarchy became damaged and God had to provide a new world order with man having now given the right to organise everything himself. After the fall, the first sin of man, the human beings could receive all the robes in their hands to arrange life.

Man and mannin were cast out of the perfect world which was all the time in harmony. Now they came in the outer boarders where God had allowed the world continually to develop. From then onwards people would feel the creation evolving with among others the movement of the earth’s liquid interior causing earthquakes and volcanoes as lava is forced to the surface and the plates of the earth shift. However, movement of the earth’s liquid core also creates the magnetosphere, a magnetic field shielding the earth from cosmic rays. This all made part of God’s Plan but now man got more knowledge of it and had to bear the consequences of their actions contrary to the Will of God. Whilst at the beginning, man had not to fear volcanoes, they now came to fear them for their destruction. Instead of gaining the knowledge they had hoped for, becoming equal with or even higher than God they lost their innocence and their inner peace, coming not to see straight ahead what possible benefits such eruptions of volcanoes could have. Volcanoes are part of the earth’s carbon cycle, regulating temperature and carbon balance so that life can survive and flourish.

God had everything placed so nicely in His system, but man wanted to be master over their own system. Now they got it. Perhaps the Garden of Eden was such a sacred place where there would not have been any problem with the further development of the universe that the movement of the earth’s surface plates over-there would not have created deadly earthquakes and tsunamis. Spread out over the earth’s surface people had to find places to live which perhaps were not provide for such conditions at first, but with man moving to the wrong places, making the wrong decisions to live somewhere they came to suffer by those actions of the earth were the movement of these plates is also essential to life on earth and were the streams of water are also necessary for the development and fertilisation of the soil.

The God of order had everything in His ‘head’ and enclosed in His ‘heart’ and had everything foreseen for His human beings. The divine Creator is the One to Whom belongs Rulership and awe. Dominion and fear are with Him. He establishes order in the heights of heaven and He makes peace in His high places.

Job 25:2 NSB »Rulership and awe belong to God. He establishes order in the heights of heaven.

Adam and Eve were created perfect. We do believe, unlike most trinitarian Christians, that God made His creation perfect and that Adam and Eve had everything to be and to stay perfect. God was not a cruel god who imposed laws he knew man could not keep. The Divine Creator did very well know that the Laws or Commandments He gave to the human beings could be followed by every human being. In case Eve had listened to God and not driven her own will, there would not have been any problem. Now she got judgement over her and got damned with suffering. With her the 1° Adam also was taken into to temptation and into the damnation of the fall. Man became consigned to perdition, being made from dust he was to return to dust again.

Gen 2:7 NSB Jehovah God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living being.

Gen 3:12-19 NSB Adam said: »The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.« (13) Then Jehovah God said to the Eve: »What is this you have done?« The woman answered: »The serpent deceived me, and I ate.« (14) So Jehovah God said to the serpent: »Because you have done this you are cursed above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. (15) »And I will put enmity (hostility) (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring (seed) and hers. He will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) you in the head, and you will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) him in the heel.« (Romans 16:20) (16) He said to the woman: »I will greatly increase your pains in childbirth; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.« (17) He said to Adam: »Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. (18) »It will produce thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field. (19) »You will eat your food by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground. You came from the ground. For dust you are and to dust you will return.«

Job 34:15 NSB »All flesh would perish and man would return to dust.

Psa 90:3-10 NSB You turn men back into dust and say: »Return, O sons of men!« (4) In your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday, already past like an hour in the night. (5) You sweep mortals away in the sleep of death. They sprout again in the morning like grass. (6) In the morning they blossom and sprout. In the evening they fade and wither away. (7) Your anger consumes us. We are troubled by your rage. (8) You set our sins in front of you. You put our secret sins in the light of your presence. (9) Indeed, all our days slip away because of your fury. We live out our years like one long sigh. (10) The days of our lives are seventy or eighty years if we are in good health. But the best of them bring trouble and misery. Indeed, they are soon gone, and we fly away.

The God of order and love presented an ending to the suffering, an end to the misery by the end of life. But this end of life does not fit the Plan of god and therefore He provide a solution to return the consequences of disobedience in the hope more human being would come to obey His orders and be prepared to honour Him as the Only One God.

To help them to find the right way to restore the damaged relationship He continued to give His Word with the people in the world.

Preceding articles:

Continues with: Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God

Additional reading:

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Ides of March: What Is It? Why Do We Still Observe It? (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
Aside from its historical connection, the concept of the Ides of March would have resonated with English citizens in 1599, the year Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar was probably performed, Ziegler said.

“This whole business of the Ides of March and timekeeping in the play would have had a strong impact on audiences,” she said.

“They were really struck by the differences between their Julian calendar [a revision of the Roman calendar created by Caesar] and the Gregorian calendar kept in Catholic countries on the continent.”

Because the two calendars featured years of slightly different lengths, they had diverged significantly by the late 16th century and were several days apart.
Fisher: The coming of spring (themorningsun.com)
Anxious people stop me on the street and at parties. I can tell by their expression that they are worried. I clasp their hand firmly in both of mine. “What is wrong, friend?” In a hushed tone they respond, “When is Easter coming?” “Why, the first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Vernal Equinox,” I assure them.

We orbit the Sun every 365.24+ days each year. Think of a clock face, with the Winter Solstice at 12 o’clock, and the Summer Solstice at 6 o’clock. Our planet moves counterclockwise on the clock face. Earth is now very near 9 o’clock, the spring, or Vernal Equinox for the Northern Hemisphere. It will occur at 6:45 p.m. on March 20. (The Southern Hemisphere reverses these: they are entering their fall.)

Cultures throughout history have celebrated the coming of spring, thanking the gods for delivering them from the miseries of winter. Sacrifices, feasts, wild parties and lots to drink were accessories to this time. It was important to understand when spring arrived so farmers knew when to plant their crops. The atmosphere was one of joy and rebirth.
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Among the oldest such festival is Passover, April 3 this year, a Jewish celebration of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Christian Easter, the most important celebration in their calendar follows from this. Jesus was crucified after the Passover feast of Seder, in 30 CE. Easter is a moveable feast, which means that it does not occur on the same date every year.

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Messiah For All

Presenting Jesus Christ our Saviour

Creation of the earth and man #8 Of the Sabbath day #6 If it be necessary to keep Sunday

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Creation of the earth and man #7 Of the Sabbath day #5 Respecting the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead

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Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

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Necessity of a revelation of creation 14 Searching the scriptures

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Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God

Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things

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