Bible sayings on the situation and place for the dead

In later writings we shall come to discuss how the Nazarene Jew gave his life for mankind and made it that though most people shall die they, those who accept his position and have done in their life that what God expects from them, shall have a hope for the future.

In the mean time when we do live we should not fear man nor death, because it is a place where all shall land up, not being able to take any wordy treasures with them, or to do something to others.

Let us look forwards to be worthy to receive the free gift of the Most High.

 

 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NAS)

“For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5 NAS)

“Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do [it] with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NAS)

“His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.” (Psalms 146:4 NAS)

“For there is no mention of Thee in death; In Sheol who will give Thee thanks?” (Psalms 6:5 NAS)

“18 “For Sheol cannot thank Thee, Death cannot praise Thee; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Thy faithfulness. 19 “It is the living who give thanks to Thee, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Thy faithfulness.” (Isaiah 38:18-19 NAS)

“19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. 20 All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 NAS)

“The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor [do] any who go down into silence;” (Psalms 115:17 NAS)

“”For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay;” (Acts 13:36 NAS)

“”There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary are at rest.” (Job 3:17 NAS)

“13 “If I look for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness; 14 If I call to the pit, ’You are my father’; To the worm, ’my mother and my sister’; 15 Where now is my hope? And who regards my hope? 16 “Will it go down with me to Sheol? Shall we together go down into the dust?”” (Job 17:13-16 NAS)

“And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.” (Luke 23:53 NAS)

“The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.” (2 Samuel 22:6 NAS)

“What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.” (Psalms 89:48 NAS)

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one [of them] according to their deeds.” (Revelation 20:13 NAS)

“And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:8 NAS)

“7  Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there.” (Psalms 139:7-8 NAS)

“Sheol and Abaddon [lie open] before the LORD, How much more the hearts of men!” (Proverbs 15:11 NAS)

“”Though they dig into Sheol, From there shall My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down.” (Amos 9:2 NAS)

“As sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; And the upright shall rule over them in the morning; And their form shall be for Sheol to consume, So that they have no habitation.” (Psalms 49:14 NAS)

“”Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4 NAS)

“let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:20 NAS)

“but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7 NAS)

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NAS)

“and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood,” (Revelation 1:5 NAS)

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches [were] in their hands;” (Revelation 7:9 NAS)

“And I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14 NAS)

“26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” (Hebrews 7:26-27 NAS)

“Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Hebrews 9:26 NAS)

“so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without [reference to] sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” (Hebrews 9:28 NAS)

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;” (1 Peter 3:18 NAS)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;” (Ephesians 2:8 NAS)

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Creation of the earth and man #10 Formation of man #2 Mortal bodies and Tartarian habitation

To deter men from crime, and to move them to “get religion” that their souls may be cured of sin, frightful pictures are painted, sometimes on canvas, sometimes on the imagination, and sometimes sculptured on stones, of the crackling and sulphurous flames, hideous devils, and horrid shapes, which fill the Tartarian habitation of the immortal ghosts of wicked men. This destiny of condemned ghosts was a part of the “vain philosophy” of the Greeks and Romans before the advent of Christ. It was introduced into the churches of the saints soon after “God granted repentance to the Gentiles”.

Acts 11:18 (ESV): 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

But, as the apostles taught the resurrection of the mortal body, the dogmatism of the Greeks was variously modified.

Romans 8:11 (ESV): 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

1 Corinthians 15:42–54 (ESV): 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Mystery and Victory

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Some admitted the resurrection of the dead; but, as it interfered with their hypothesis about souls, they said it was already past; and consequently, that “there is no resurrection of the dead”.

2 Timothy 2:18 (ESV): 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

1 Corinthians 15:12 (ESV): The Resurrection of the Dead

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

This gentilizing the hope of the gospel filled Paul with zeal, and caused him to pen the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians to counteract its pernicious influence. He wrote to Timothy to put him on his guard against it; and styles the gentilisms, “profane vain babblings; and oppositions of science falsely so called”.

1 Timothy 6:20 (ESV): 20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,”

He exhorts him to shun them, and “not to strive about words to no profit”; for they “would eat as doth a canker”.

2 Timothy 2:14 (ESV): A Worker Approved by God

14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.

English: Luca Signorelli - "Resurrection ...
Luca Signorelli – “Resurrection of the Flesh” (1499-1502). Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto. Português: Luca Signorelli – “Ressurreição da carne” (1499-1502). Capela de San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto. Svenska: Luca Signorelli – “Köttets uppståndelse” (1499-1502). Cappella di San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto. Italiano: Luca Signorelli – “Resurrezione della carne” (1499-1502). Cappella di San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If there were no other evidence in Paul’s writings of inspiration, this prediction would be sufficient to establish it. It has come to pass exactly as he foretold it. The dogma of an immortal soul in mortal sinful flesh has eaten out the marrow and fatness, the flesh and sinew, of the doctrine of Christ; and has left behind only an ill-conditioned and ulcerated skeleton of Christianity, whose dry bones rattle in the “winds of doctrine” that are blowing around us, chopping and changing to every point of the compass. The apostles taught two resurrections of the dead; one at “the manifestation of his presence” (τῃ̂ ἐηιφανείᾳ τη̂̓ς παρουαίας αὐτου̂)—TÉ EPIPHANEIA tēs parousias autou), the other, at the delivering up of the kingdom to God at the end of the dispensation of the fulness of times.

1 Thessalonians 4:14–17 (ESV): 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

2 Thessalonians 1:7–8 (ESV): and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

But this did not suit the theory of dogmatists. They resolved the first into what they term “a glorious resurrection of spiritual life in the soul”; and the second, into a re-union of disembodied ghosts with their old mortalities to be sent back whence they came. In this way they reduce the second resurrection to a very useless and superfluous affair. Their systems send “souls” to their account as soon as death strikes the bodies down. Some torment them in purgatory, or in an intermediate state; others send them direct into unmitigated punishment; while both, after they have suffered for thousands of years before trial and conviction, reunite them to their bodies; and if it be asked for what purpose? system replies, “to be judged!” Punish souls first and judge them after! This is truly human, but it is certainly not divine justice. The truth is, that this article of the creed is brought in to defend “orthodoxy” against the imputation of denying the resurrection of the body, which would be a very inconvenient charge in the face of the testimony of God. But this will not avail; for, to believe dogmas that make the resurrection of the mortal body unnecessary and absurd is equivalent to a denial of it. In saying that there was no future resurrection, Paul charged the Corinthians with the mortal sin of repudiating the resurrection of Jesus; “for”, said he, “if the dead rise not”, as ye say, “then Christ is not raised”. Their heresy ate out this truth, which stands or falls with the reality of the “first resurrection” at his coming.

2 Thessalonians 1:7–8 (ESV) and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

 

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 29–30). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

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Preceding:

Creation of the earth and man #9 Formation of man #1 Cure of souls

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Additional reading:

  1. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
  2. What is life?
  3. Heavenly creatures do they exist
  4. Fallen Angels
  5. The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
  6. Satan or the devil
  7. Satan the evil within
  8. Is God behind all suffering here on earth
  9. Fear and protection
  10. What happens when we die?
  11. Jesus three days in hell
  12. Jesus and the fallen angels in hell
  13. Is there an Immortal soul
  14. Dying or not
  15. All Souls’ Day
  16. 1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action

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Further reading:

  1. (09/18/2015) Discovered Differences?
  2. 133 and Holding
  3. Purgatórium // Purgatory
  4. Purgatory
  5. Explaining Purgatory to Protestants
  6. The weapon against Heresy And Sin: The Most Holy Rosary
  7. What, actually, is the soul?
  8. All Of Human History Is Like The Jewish Marriage Process
  9. Limbo
  10. Journey of the Soul after Death
  11. The Dry Land –the Testing in the Desert
  12. The Flames of Heaven
  13. Jerry Walls: The Necessity of Purgatory
  14. Death and the Afterlife: Part II
  15. May aral ba na Purgatoryo ang Bibliya?
  16. Purgatory: a disillusionment I created
  17. Jerry Walls: Is Hell a Place You’d Ever Want to Visit?
  18. The Essential Catholic Survival Guide by the Staff of Catholic Answers
  19. Have you considered…eternity?
  20. Glow | Myths About Hell
  21. Hell Comes in Threes
  22. Red Letter Christ-centric Universalism 101: Two views on Heaven, two views on Hell (part 2)
  23. Are you going to hell?
  24. Hell is real and for eternity too
  25. “As we found out, God is bigger than we thought. Loving. All-Merciful. And God hardly cares about things like sins and blasphemy.”
  26. Heaven, Hell, Valhalla and Paradise
  27. Coffee and Theology Podcast: Episode 4 – Life and the Afterlife in the First Century
  28. Getting close!!
  29. [1: 1,593 of 10,000] Who Was Really Choosing Hell
  30. Why do many people not like evangelicals?
  31. To Neglect Those Who Belong To Jesus Is To Neglect Jesus
  32. From Heaven to Hell: Ignorance is Bliss
  33. The Deepest Abyss & the Highest Height

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Creation of the earth and man #9 Formation of man #1 Cure of souls

The Formation of man

“Out of the ground wast thou taken; for dust thou art.”

1980 Soul Note Recording
1980 Soul Note Recording (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That “the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”, is a truth of general application to all the institutions of God. Upon this principle, man was not made for religion, but religion was made for him. If this be true, then it follows that it was adapted to man as God had formed him. Hence, the institutions of religion, if it be of God, will always be found in harmony with his constitution and not at variance with it. They are devised as a remedy, for certain irregularities which have invaded his intellectual and moral nature; by which, phenomena have been superinduced which are destructive of his being. Now the exact adaptation of the Bible religion to the curative indications suggested by the intellectual, moral, and physical infirmities of human nature, which everyone who understands it cannot fail to perceive, proves that the mind which framed it is divine; and that the religion of the scriptures, and the constitution of man, are the work of one and the same Creator. God is truly the only wise physician, whose practice is based upon perfect knowledge; for He alone (and they to whom He hath revealed it) knows “what is in man”. [(John 2:24-25)]

Hence, no incongruities are discoverable in “His way” when His method of cure is understood.
In medicine, a scientific practice is directed, and founded, upon a knowledge of the structure or mechanism of the body, the motive power thereof, and of the functions which are manifested by the working of this power on its several parts. The absence of this knowledge in a professional, constitutes empiricism*; and is one cause of such vast multitudes “dying”, as it is said, “of the doctor”. Being ignorant of the motive power of the living creature, they are as unsuccessful in correcting its irregularities as a watchmaker, who was ignorant of the principles and laws by which a timepiece was moved, would be in rectifying its errors. Now this may be taken in illustration of the predicament of others who undertake the “cure of souls”. To treat these as “a work-man that needeth not to be ashamed”, a man should be acquainted with “souls” as God hath formed and constituted them. He should know what “a living soul” is; what its condition in a healthy state; what the peculiar morbid affection under which it languishes; what the nature of the cure indicated; and what the divinely appointed means by which the indications may be infallibly fulfilled. An attempt to “cure souls” without understanding the constitution of man as revealed by Him who created him, is mere theological experimentalism; and as bootless, and more fatally destructive than the empiricism of the most ignorant pretenders to the healing art. What! men undertake to “cure souls” and not to know what a soul is; or to imagine it a something, which it is admitted cannot be demonstrated by “the testimony of God”. This is like pretending to repair a timepiece without knowing what constitutes a watch or clock, or while imagining it to be a musical box, or any other conceivable thing.

Seven Souls
Seven Souls (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Speculation has assumed that the soul is something in the human body capable of living out of the body, and of eating, drinking, feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking, singing, and so forth; and of the same essence as God Himself. In times past some have busied themselves in calculating how many such souls could stand on the point of a needle; a problem, however, which still remains unsolved. A vast deal is said in “sermons” and systems about this idea; about its supposed nature, its wonderful capacity, its infinite value, its immortality, and its destiny. I shall not, however, trouble the reader with it. We have to do with “the law and the testimony”; and as they are altogether silent about such a supposed existence, we shall not occupy our pages in superadding to the obsolete print concerning its attributes, which has already merged into the oblivion of the past. I allude to so much as this, because it is made the foundation corner-stone, as it were, of those experimental systems of spiritual cure, which are so popular with the world, and so utterly exclusive and proscriptive of the divine method.

Upon the supposition of the existence of this kind of a soul in the human body are based the current notions of heaven, hell, immortality, infant salvation, purgatory, saint-worship, Mariolatry, spiritual millenniumism, metempsychosis*, etc., etc. Its existence both in the body and out of the body being assumed, it is assumed also to be immortal. An immortal disembodied existence requires a dwelling place, because something must be somewhere; and, as it is said to be virtuous or vicious according to its supposed life in the body, and post mortem rewards and punishments are affirmed — this dwelling-place is exhibited as an elysium, or, as an orthodox poet sings, “a place of goblins damn’d”.

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 27–29). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

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Notes:

Empiricism: the doctrine that all all ideas and categories, knowledge of matters of fact derives from experience and that the mind is not furnished with a set of concepts in advance of experience or that knowledge cannot extend beyond experience, including observation, experiment, and induction. Compare intuitionism, rationalism

Metempsychosis:  [Late Latin metempsȳchōsis, from Greek metempsūkhōsis, from metempsūkhousthai, to transmigrate : meta-, meta- + empsūkhos, animate (en, in; see psūkhē in Indo-European roots).] = the migration of a soul from one body to another or the entering of a soul after death upon a new cycle of existence in a new body either of human or animal form; the transmigration of the soul, esp. the passage of the soul after death into the body of another being; the rebirth of the soul at death in another body, either human or animal. Cf. creationism.metempsychic, metempsychosic, metempsychosical, adj.

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Preceding:

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

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

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Additional reading:

  1. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
  2. Is God behind all suffering here on earth
  3. Looking at three “I am” s
  4. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
  5. The Soul confronted with Death
  6. Souls and Religions with Nirvana and light
  7. All Souls’ Day
  8. Fear and protection
  9. What is life?
  10. Cosmos creator and human destiny
  11. What happens when we die?
  12. I Can’t Believe That (1) … God would send anyone to hell
  13. Paying vows to Jehovah God
  14. Are you religious, spiritual, or do you belong to a religion, having a faith or interfaith
  15. Dying or not
  16. Is there an Immortal soul
  17. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
  18. How are the dead?
  19. What happens when we die?
  20. The Soul confronted with Death
  21. Dead and after
  22. Destination of righteous
  23. Destination of the earth
  24. Sheol or the grave
  25. Soul
  26. The Soul not a ghost
  27. Human Nature: What does the Bible teach?
  28. The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
  29. Let not sin reign in your mortal body
  30. We will all be changed

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Further articles on the internet:

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No other god besides Jehovah who gives all explanation

Lots of people do think they are not able to understand God’s Word without the explanations of theologians. They are mistaken and have a wrong idea about the Divine Creator Who is a God of order and clarity.

From the beginning of creation the Maker of everything let His Voice resound in the universe. He wanted everything to hear His Voice. He also came to make human beings in His image and wanted that they knew Him and listened to His Voice, His commandments, His statutes and would follow His Wishes.

Being created in the image of God each human being has certain elements or qualities of God in him or her. Every created human being has something in him or her which has the quality or feeling of the Divine Maker. As such every human should be able to feel that there is a Divine Creator. He is the Father of universe Who let His Voice hear and let His products of His Hands show the wonders and glory of His Majesty.

Wherever people dwell they can look around them and see the wonders of nature. Nature can speak for itself. In the magnificent glory of the universe every human being should be able to recognise the Hand of God.

Those who are willing to seek the Lord God shall be able to find Him whenever they shall seek Him with all their heart, and with all their soul in their affliction.

Deu 4:29 NHEBJE  But from there you shall seek Jehovah your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deu 30:1-3 NHEBJE  It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Jehovah your God has driven you,  (2)  and shall return to Jehovah your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;  (3)  that then Jehovah your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where Jehovah your God has scattered you.

2Ch 31:21 NHEBJE  In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

Psa 119:2 NHEBJE  Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart.

Jer 29:13 NHEBJE  You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Page of Polish "Biblia Nieświeska" (...
Page of Polish “Biblia Nieświeska” (Nesvizh Bible) translated by Szymon Budny (1572). Including God’s Name “Jehovah” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the beginning of times nor in the old times there where people who called themselves theologians or had the idea that they alone could truly understand the Words of God and give people insight. Those who claim to be the only ones who can fully understand the Bible and give the only right explanation are passing God’s Words and forgetting that it is God Himself Who calls and gives insight.

To come to know God we can look around us and see what nature has to offer us. We should open our eyes and see the micro-cosmos with its many wonders. Becoming aware of the nissim or miracles in nature we shall be able to recognise the invisible Hand of God.

Jehovah also has raised up for us prophets, men of God, His servants who wrote down God’s Words and tried to help people find the Most High Lord of the universe. Jehovah of Hosts, the Elohim of Israel, wants us to find Him and has taken care that His words were correctly written down and delivered from one generation unto the next.

The Elohim has gone forth to take to Himself a nation from the midst of a nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by battle, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that He, the Most High of all beings, shall be known as the One Who Is The Being Itself, the I Am Who Is’ or “I am that which I am” [ayah ashar ayah. This is not His Name, but it is an explanation that leads up to the revelation of His Name in v. 15, namely: יהוה  {Jehovah}] Who did so many things for those who lived on the earth, so that they could come to see Who is behind it all.

Elohim His a strong hand and outstretched arm we should allow to come over us. We should allow it that by great fearsome deeds, according to all that יהוה  {Jehovah} our Elohim has done in the past we shall get to know Him better by having our eyes and ears open for Him more than for human words and tricks. When opening ourselves for Him He shall let Him be known and shall recall to our heart that יהוה  {Jehovah} Himself is Elohim in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is none else beside Him.

God has at all times given His Words and has provided means so that people could find Him and could come close to Him. The only thing what He requires is that people listen to Him and guard His laws and His commands which He has given to man and which are recorded in the Book of books.

Deu 4:34-40 NHEBJE  Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Jehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?  (35)  It was shown to you so that you might know that Jehovah is God. There is no one else besides him.  (36)  Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.  (37)  Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;  (38)  to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.  (39)  Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that Jehovah he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else.  (40)  You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Jehovah your God gives you, forever.

Exo 3:14 NHEBJE  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

Jehovah gave His remembrance to all generations and His Word’s notated in the Holy Scriptures should be sufficient for us to come to knowledge. when we are willing to hear God speaking to us in His infallible Word, the Bible, we should not worry about learned scholars, theologians or not being sufficient educated to find and understand God. God does not hold back necessary information for any body. He wants to give everybody, learned or not educated the chance to find Him and to worship Him.

God stretches out His Hand and, like all that Jehovah our God did for His people in Egypt before the eyes of the world, He is still present to bring trials and signs and wonders and even war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds. Many may find it strange God allows fighting and wars going on, but may not forget that man himself wanted to be master of the world and arrange everything themselves. It is up to man to take care of their own life and their own environment, though those who want God near them, God shall not leave them abandoned but shall come to their guidance and help.

With the Holy Scriptures we have been given a very handy tool and a manual for life. We all are shown the wonders of God in order for us to acknowledge that Jehovah is the God; there is no other God besides him.

Exo 15:11 NHEBJE  Who is like you, Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

We should trust God and follow His words. No other man or god besides Jehovah shall be able to  give all explanation and would be mightier or better than the Word of God itself.

It is by reading the many books of those prophets that we can come to know God, His Works  and His son, who also used those books to explain what he came to do and to show who the Messiah was.

Luk 24:26-27 NHEBJE  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”  (27)  Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luk 24:31-32 NHEBJE  Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight.  (32)  They said one to another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”

Luk 24:44-45 NHEBJE  He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”  (45)  Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures.

Like in the old times many persons their eyes may still be closed. Many people their minds are also still closed. Our minds may like the apostles their mind still being covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. We should know that it are not the theologians who are going to remove that veil because it is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.  Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers many so called ‘Christians‘ their minds.  But it can be removed, as the Scripture talks about Moses his veil being removed when he turned to the Lord Most High. Also at the time that Christ Jesus was afraid for what was going to come he wondered why God had abandoned him and cried unto God. We too like Christ can call unto his heavenly Father and in the same way as Christ found guidance from God in the Holy Scriptures, we too can find guidance in it. God’s Spirit accompanied Christ Jesus who was keeping to the Word of his heavenly Father, the Only One God. Like him we, when letting the Spirit come into our heart can find liberation of human doctrines and find freedom.

Those who call themselves followers of Christ Jesus should listen to his words and to the words of the heavenly Father Who sent Jesus to this world. Those willing to become a Christian should get to know the Holy Scriptures like Jesus knew the Scriptures very well.  With uncovered faces, not afraid to take the words of the Bible like they are written down, we should reflect the glory of God  יהוה the Spirit, and where the Spirit of יהוה {Jehovah} is, there is freedom, finding transformation into His likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.

2Co 3:14-18 NHEBJE  But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away.  (15)  But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.  (16)  But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  (17)  Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  (18)  But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Isa 29:18-19 NHEBJE  In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.  (19)  The humble also will increase their joy in Jehovah, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

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Preceding:

Gone astray, away from God

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

Necessity of a revelation of creation 14 Searching the scriptures

Theologians and a promised Spirit to enlighten us

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Additional reading:

  1. The business of this life
  2. A Living Faith #5 Perseverance
  3. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
  4. Seeking for God
  5. Lord and owner
  6. Without God no purpose, no goal, no hope
  7. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
  8. Blinkered minds
  9. Looking at three “I am” s
  10. True God giving His Word for getting wisdom
  11. Counterfeit Gospels
  12. I can’t believe that … (3) miracles can happen
  13. Truth, doubt or blindness
  14. Wisdom lies deep
  15. Something Most False Christians Have In Common
  16. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
  17. Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists
  18. Increased in wisdom in favour with God
  19. Glory of God appearing in our character
  20. Be like a tree planted by streams of water
  21. Change
  22. God is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him
  23. Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
  24. Genuine message of salvation
  25. Good or bad preacher
  26. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
  27. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

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Further reading about theologians:

  1. Quotable Quote
  2. To Know What Is Real
  3. I Believe
  4. Devotional for the Theologian (official and unofficial)
  5. A Man and His Vision
  6. … 506 years ago
  7. The Severe Handicap of a Traditional, Western, Religious Mindset…
  8. Dr. Cornelius Van Til – The Christian View of Education and Culture
  9. Essay – Out of the Abundance of Struggles the Mouth speaks
  10. Faith That Yields a Bountiful Harvest
  11. Why I’m Passionate About Lancaster Bible College
  12. Richard Hays on Being Pastoral-Theologians like Paul
  13. May 2 – Athanasius
  14. Nov 3 – Richard Hooker
  15. Book Recommendation … Jonathan Edwards
  16. I Resolve …
  17. John Piper
  18. Puritan John Owen – The Power of Sin in the Lives of Professorsur
  19. Timothy Keller
  20. The Golden Dawn
  21. Catharsis and the Nous
  22. Who am I to be a Theologian?
  23. The 36 Doctors of the Catholic Church
  24. On the Question of Doctoral Studies (By a “lay” theologian)
  25. Do you want to be a Pastor?
  26. Theologian ~ Pain of the Saints
  27. The Theologian as Artist
  28. The hardships of Biblical Scholar’dom (or, Beware the buzzwords, my son!)
  29. Paul Molnar’s Advice on How to Get an Academic Job
  30. Every Christian is a Theologian
  31. I think that every Christian ultimately is a theologian…
  32. Why Theological Study Is for Everyone

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