Bible Questions & Discussion PAGE 196

Hello GiGi

The precise translation of Hebrew 4:1-2 is,

" 1. Let us fear, as long as the promise of entering His rest (it means Heaven) is left (it means it is still valid), any of you seems to come short

2. For we were told the good news {in grk "esmen evengelismenoi"}like them, but the word they heard didn't benefit them, not being mixed (it means joined) with faith in them that heard it."

Here Paul makes a comparison between people in OT that heard the good news of entering their rest (land of promise) but didn't believe those news, and hence they never entered the land, and those in the NT who may be in the same situation, not believing the good news of entering the real rest (Heaven) and hence they are in risk of not entering it'

The phrase in the KJV "the gospel preached" has the meaning "the good news we heard, we were told", the word gospel here has its initial meaning which is good news.

Hello Jema,

In trying to understand the nature of salvation, we have to start with the condition of mankind before God applies his salvation to those whom he chooses to save. And we read that in Romans 3. "There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that seek after God."

Salvation of Old Testament believers and New Testament believers, throughout the history of the world, is by God's mercy and grace alone. And the basis, for that salvation is that God chose, whom he would save, paid for the sins of those whom he chose to save, and applied that salvation to their life, so that they become born again. and the efficacy of Christ's Atonement applies from the foundation of the world.

Mankind has no inherent faith that will please God, and result in salvation. The faith that we have is a gift of God and his part and parcel of the salvation that God applies to our life.

The old testament sacrifices never saved anyone.

But Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord. Just like every Old Testament and New Testament believer believer that God saves.

Is 'KJV Standard' '1769 Cambridge Standard Edition'?

I never heard of Angel numbers until a few days ago. BUT in March 2018 God told me to watch my numbers. I did not know what he meant but I began to pay closer attention to the numbers I would see. A few days past and I received a text message from an unknown person it was a verse from the book of John but I could not see the whole thing. So I went to my KJV and looked it up oddly enough it was on page 1331. The verse was either 3 or 13 and the chapter was either 3 or 13. I can not recall with put finding my book that I wrote it in. Anyway it the complete number set was all 1s and 3s. The page number chapter number and verse number. What I read got me to thinking about birth days and events that had happened in my life. Well I was led to start calculating some of those dates and events on the 3rd day of studying the numbers I was standing at the washing machine when God reminded me of a birthday that I had not included so I went to my book and added that number when I did the result produced the same series of 1s and 3s only they were in reverse. Exactly reverse of the original number. Well it provided an answer to a question that I had said many times only God would know. I felt like it was a confirmation that my answer to the question was right. It began a series of events that lasted from 3/1/2018 until Thanksgiving 2018. The events ended with me spending 3days in the bathroom of my old family home riddled with fear and confusion begging God to kill me before the gang stalkers did. A lot transpired in those 3 days that I can not explain. On the 4th day when I emerged it was like I had been reborn and I felt 20 years younger. All the guilt and condemnation that I was feeling was gone. I was renewed. Then I became obsessed with a task that God had given me. He told me "The endtimes are officially here spread the message far and wide" prior to that I was not into social media but now I can't put it down. I have been spreading his message on several platforms.

Hello David and Chris,

I have been reading your conversation and I will have to go by David's view since Hebrews 4:2 says that the gospel was preached to us as well as the OT Israelites. This wording implies that the gospel is the same gospel, not two types of gospel.

We do not know all of what God told the OT saints (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the prophets) we know just what was recorded in Scripture. But if the Word in Hebrews says that those in the OT had the gospel preached to them, then I think we should believe that it is the one true gospel of Jesus our Savior and His work for our salvation.

Thank you for the smile! God Bless you all your days!

Thank you, Chris for this addition to my post concerning the teachings of the early church.

There is much to learn of our history as a church built upon the rock of Christ. It has never been a static body without growth nor change as the centuries played out. Our church body today is much influenced by culture around us just as the church was throughout the centuries. There is much good and also much bad in the workings of the church throughout the ages. Today we see much false teachings as the leaders of the early church did. They openly refuted these heresies, especially those concerning the Godhead and the deity and humanity of Jesus. I am thankful that they did. Jesus promised to build HIS church and that it will endure through much trial and tribulation, as it has to this day.

Noah found grace before any sacraficial laws were given , by God , to the Israelites . It isn't the sacrifice that bestows forgiveness , it's the faith in the sacrifice . God says : do this ( whatever this might be ) and I will forgive your sins . So , if we have faith , we believe what God says and we obey . Wether that is : believe in my Son , or wether it is : offer a lamb or touch the brasen serpent etc . We have to have faith in God's promises and then act accordingly . We have to believe that our sins are forgiven in Christ and then try to live as much as possible , as Christ did . Same with the animal sacrifices , God says clearly , offer these sacrifices and your sins will be forgiven , it's not the blood of the sacrifices , it's our / their faith in God's command and promise that will be fulfilled , if His command is obeyed .

Hi David , hope you don't mind if I ask a question ? Do you think it possible , that the Israelites in the old testament , were forgiven their sins through those old sacrifices , not because of the actual physical sacrifices that were made , but because they believed ( had faith ) in those sacrifices ? They believed that God forgave them when they obeyed His commands to do those sacrifices , He had told them that they would be forgiven if they offered those sacrifices and because they believed Him and offered them , then God forgave them because they showed faith ?

Hi Charlie Slaves

Greetings in Christ JESUS

Thank you for your kind reply.As you and all can see,from Adam until JESUS I based in the Chronology of the Word of GOD's. But from JESUS until ou days I took as parameter the Gregorian Calendar-Year 2023.Thus I concluded we are living in the beginning of the first century of the seventh and last millennium or in the turn from the sixth to the seventh GOD's Day.By the way, the Day of GOD's rest.And now,even now,and from now on,our Lord JESUS takes over the government of the Universe-Mat.28:18,and will execute His Word of vengeance,and sitting on His Throne will execute righteous Judgments,the Judgment Seat of Christ-2Cor.5:10,combined with Rom.14:11& Rev.6:12-17

By the Word of GOD,the Word is GOD,self-executable,what I'm seeing is writting in Rev.11:15-18KJV combined with Luke 20:35-36,among other biblical references.15-...The kingdoms OF THIS WORLD are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. 18-And the nations were(will be)angry, and GOD's wrath is come...

See, there will be a terrible WAR between GOD X Satan(between the Spirit of GOD X the spirit of Devil)- Dan 12 and Rev.12. GET READY

JESUS said:They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world(next world,not a Planet),and the resurrection from the dead,neither marry,nor are given in marriage:Neither can they die any more:for they are equal unto the angels;and are the children of God... Luke 20:35-36

For now,spiritually we are in the 2nd heaven:Eph.1:3&Phil.3:20-21,the 1st heaven lasted from Moses until JESUS.The 3rd heaven- Luke 20:35-36-will be established from now on,and the first two heavens will be burned by our GOD-2Pe.3:7.The heavens and the earth,which are now,by the same Word are kept in store,reserved unto fire against this Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men(i.e.the seventh and last Day,or seventh and last millennium)

May our Lord GOD bless and keep us,and give us His protection

AMEN

And again Chris,

John 3:5-10 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

No Chris.

Christ was the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev 13:8

Hebrews 4:2,3 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Romans 3:10,11 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

David0921. Yes, it is only by God's Mercy & Grace given that salvation is effective to all. But of course, our problem here is that you see that the salvation given was the same for both OT Israel & Gentiles.

After Jesus' Crucifixion, yes, that shed Blood applied to all, so Israel could not be saved in this way pre-Cross. But they awaited that day when that Blood would apply, Israel had to demonstrate obedience to God & works (performing those sacrifices, rigid obedience to the Laws, etc.) - and this was so that their sins would be covered (not taken away, for only Christ's Blood could do that), that their sins might be 'shielded' from God's View through sacrifice. Was this 'Works'? Certainly. Because God required an effort be put in so that sinners were aware of their sins & requirement for payment to prevent justice being served. Otherwise, God Himself could have provided the sacrificial animal, caused it to die & burn, as the people watched on in appreciation. But God chose that man had to put the effort (works) by proper animal selection & performing all the rites necessary to present his sins to God for forgiveness. And all this pointed to a future day when "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering"; the offering that all the old sacrifices pointed to & that would be a permanent "once & for all" offering for sin, unlike man's offerings which only covered his sin, awaiting that day.

So yes, "only one salvation", but God had to put Israel under the Old Covenant of Law & Works, that they might know Who God is, their sinfulness, & how great was His Love for them that He should accept their sacrifices. If their 'salvation' was all of Grace alone, then there would be no need for their effort (works) to contribute to it by performing those sacrifices. But to reiterate, Israel didn't receive the salvation that we know today, but they knew God's Forgiveness, awaiting the day when the faithful among them would have Christ's Blood applied to them.

Chris,

I should clarify my understanding of Acts 26:22,23 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

The phrase "unto the people, and unto the Gentiles" is, I believe, a phrase used here by God to encompasses all peoples of the World, Jew and Gentile alike, throughout time, to whom God would send the Gospel. Abel, Enoch, Noah, the Ninevites, the Queen of Sheba were not Jews. They were all "Gentiles" and not descendants of Abraham.

Chris,

I admit to not having a good grasp of your "understanding" of how those living in OT times were "saved", and the "gospel" that was "preached to them". And in particular how God "applied" Salvation to each individual that He saved; from Abel to Enoch to Noah; and then to Abraham and those of Israel and Judah that He saved, all of whom were a tiny remnant of those living during the OT, as in the NT.

I see only one Gospel of Salvation throughout the Whole Bible. And only one process for "applying" that Salvation to ALL of God's elect throughout time. And that was by God's Mercy and God's Grace Alone. Where none of "their works" nor any "inherent faith" contributed in any way to their Salvation. Just like Salvation during the NT.

Now granted that Gospel was not as clearly articulated in the OT as in the NT as God continued to write the Bible throughout history. But Noah "was a preacher of righteousness"; and the Ceremonial Laws; and all the books of the OT, like Isaiah and Jeremiah contained the same Gospel of Judgment and Salvation by Christ's Atonement as is articulated in the NT.

We read this statement by the Apostle Paul in Acts 26:22-23 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the PROPHETS and MOSES did say should come:That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people{OT}, and to the Gentiles{NT}.

So the Gospel of Hebrews 4 and Acts 26 and the Whole Bible is the Gospel of the REST of Salvation, God's WORK of Grace Alone apart from any work that man does. And the EFFICACY of that WORK, Christ's Atonement, applied throughout time.

And, I'm sorry to say, that is not the gospel that I see in your comments regarding OT Believers. I see a Works / Grace gospel and a process for applying Salvation to the life of the OT believer, not found anywhere in the Bible.

Thank you GiGi for taking the trouble to note those historical facts for us. It is true that we could just stay in the Word alone to learn of biblical Truths, but when we have so much verified history to learn more of the background of the early Church, their beliefs & functions, it would be unwise to neglect them. Brother Jesse's Introductions to the NT letters goes a long way to help us understand the people, times, Church matters, & culture that prompted those letters to be written with all passion & urgency.

And these facts arising from those Church fathers you mentioned, clearly showed that what they learned from the apostles & those after them, were to be believed, adhered to & taught faithfully. And of course, there is much in the NT letters to warn believers not only of Judaistic intrusions into the Church, but of Gnostic inroads that would take away from the Deity of Christ as well as perverting the Word of God & giving into licentious living. Indeed, the Word of God is all we need, yet I find that verifiable historical writings (as pertaining to the Church) will always be of great benefit to us so that we can see how that Word was communicated, believed on, or else departed from. And the evidence we see of the 'Church-at-large' today, gives us no joy or encouragement that all is well with her; the divide between Christ's sheep & the goats are increasingly evident to us now & will continue to broaden, making even the true Church & its Savior the world's laughing stock & bringing great shame to blessed Name of Jesus.

Good evening and morning! A couple of meditations.

1 Corinthians 9:10 - 11 "Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresherh in hope should be partaker of his hope.

If we have sow unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing we shall reap your carnal things?

If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that they which minister about the holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?"

Galatians 5:5- 8 " For we through the Spirit wait for the Hope of righteousness by faith.

For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you."

I perceive David0921, that you're not reading my comments correctly. I've never said that the Gospel is not seen in the OT sacrifices; those sacrifices declared how Christ perfectly fulfilled every aspect of them.

What I did say, in relation to the 'Gospel being preached to us as well as to them', was that the Gospel spoken of, assured them (& us) of a coming complete rest ( Hebrews 4). Maybe, your point of contention with me should be based on my understanding of the Gospel mentioned here (one of Rest), whereas you see the Gospel here as being singularly on Christ's Sacrifice. I believe that OT Israel knew nothing of a coming Messiah's Sacrifice of His Life for them & substitutionary payment. Hence, the word 'Gospel' mentioned in Hebrews 4 is not the same Gospel they received as is the complete Gospel that the Apostles preached post-Cross.

Sent for clarification.

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 9):

VII. OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JAMES:

CHAPTER 1: The development of faith

CHAPTER 2: The activity of faith

CHAPTER 3: The maturity of faith

CHAPTER 4: The enemy of faith

CHAPTER 5: The function of faith

Do you think the book of James might be about faith?

I will share my introduction to 1 Peter, and also 2 Peter soon. God Bless!!!

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 8):

Acts Chapter 15 records that by the time the early church was formed, James the half-brother of Jesus was then in charge of and leading the church that was in Jerusalem. In Galatians 1:19, Paul says that when he went into Jerusalem, he looked for the leaders and he spent time with James the Lord's brother.

So, scripture, as well as tradition, backs up the fact that we are studying a letter that was written by the half-brother of Jesus Christ, a natural born child to Joseph and Mary, and who is the head of the church in Jerusalem.

There is also another letter in the New Testament that was written by a half-brother of Jesus and that is the book of Jude. It is a one-chapter book right before the book of Revelation. So, we have actually 2 letters in the New Testament by believing half-brothers of Jesus Christ.

And none of them of course pulled the "I'm the brother of Jesus" card to bring out their superiority or even to get favoritism from the early church. They all presented themselves as the servant and slave of Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine if your half-brother turned out to be the Messiah, God Himself in the flesh? "I knew there was something about that brother of mine. I mean, he never did anything wrong!" And then they still didn't believe until after His resurrection when He appeared to them. Then they believed.

But then can you imagine yourself living out your life saying that I am a slave to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ my half-brother? It just doesn't sound right, you know? But that's what they had to go through. And none of them pulled rank within the body of Christ that they should be treated better or different than anybody else!

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 7):

VI. THE AUTHOR:

The writer of James is introduced to us in Verse 1. The Greek word for James is the Hebrew name for Jacob. There are four prominent people in the New Testament by the name of James. The first one is James, who with his brother John, are known as the sons of Zebedee. They are presented to us in Mark 1:19.

This James was put to death by Herod Agrippa as recorded in Acts 12:2. So he is not the writer of this letter. Secondly, there is James the son of Alphaeus. He is presented to us in Mark 3:18 as one of the disciples. We don't have any more information about James the son of Alphaeus.

The third one is presented to us in Luke 6:16 where we are told about Judas the son of James. This Judas in not Judas Iscariot. Since this James is the father of one of the disciples mentioned in Luke 6:16, he would have been too old or even dead by the time James was written therefore he cannot be the author.

Fourthly, James that is given to us in the New Testament and by tradition as well as scripture itself, it is presented to us as the writer of this letter. The tradition from Jerome, Augustine, and other writers says James the writer of the Letter of James is the half-brother of Jesus.

In Mathew 13:55, it tells us that Mary and Joseph, after the birth of Jesus Christ, gave birth to other children. There are four brothers mentioned along with sisters. James is listed first so he must have been the oldest.

John 7:5 tells us that during Jesus' earthly ministry, His earthly brothers were taunting Him and did not believe in Him.

I Corinthians 15:5 tells us that after Jesus died and rose from the dead, He appeared to James His brother, as well as the other disciples and His family, and they became believers in Jesus Christ as the Savior and Messiah.

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 6):

III. THE STYLE OF THE BOOK:

The Book of James is not a doctrinal book. James is a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus in Matthew Chapters 5 through 7. Everything that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount is found in the letter of James.

The letter of James is made up of a series of tests by which the genuineness of salvation can be determined.

IV. DATE OF THE WRITING:

It was written around 45 A.D. Some even think it might be one of the first letters written in the New Testament, right after the persecution in Acts Chapter 7. Josephus the church historian tells us James was martyred in 62 A.D.

V. TO WHOM IT WAS WRITTEN:

James 1:1 tells us that James was written to the Twelve Tribes which were scattered. These were Jewish believers who had scattered outside of Israel because of persecution. This group is officially known as the DIASPORA. That's a Greek word that means scattering. They were the scattered ones.

So, all Jews who had to leave Jerusalem and Israel because of persecution, they are all called the Diaspora, even to this day.

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 5):

I'll also give you another hint. It is faith without works. It doesn't say people without faith. It's faith that works, not people. I hope you understand what I am saying here. It's not me producing faith that produces works, because if I have to produce it, then it's works.

That's in all of Paul's arguments, is that faith, a fruit of God's Spirit, without activity is a dead faith because God's Spirit is active. So, if a person doesn't have that activity in their life, they have a dead faith, and they're not saved!

Interesting too that James, like the writer of Hebrews, is speaking to Jewish people who are displaced from their homeland, and they're going through hard times. And later on, James is going to tell them, you're going through the most difficult times that a human being could go through, yet you're going through it which proves you're saved. You're trusting the Lord even though you are hurting, and you are suffering, and you can only do that because God is in your life sustaining you.

So, you are of the faith. You're listening to God's Spirit encourage you, whom you can't see, and you can't feel, yet He's ministering to you and encouraging you. Yet you have all these feelings and all these circumstances around you that you can see and feel and know as a human being. And yet you've got to trust that still small voice that says I'm with you, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Trust me!

And of course, the characteristic, according to the bible in Matthew Chapter 24, and we'll also see it in James that the characteristic of someone who is saved is enduring till the end. That's not a human effort. That's a guarantee. If you have God's Spirit, you're going to make it till the end. He didn't say how. Some of us might crawl over the finish line, but God's going to get us there. That's His promise!

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 4):

NOW WE HAVE THE INTRODUCTION TO JAMES:

I. JAMES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT:

The Book of James is part of a collection of books in the New Testament that are called the Jewish Literature. The Jewish Literature begins with the Book of Hebrews and continues through to the end of the Book of Revelation.

II. THE THEME OF THE BOOK:

The theme of the book is found in James 2:20, "Faith without works is dead."

Let me just give you a small explanation of where I'm going with this. In the book of Hebrews, there is so much to study about faith. From a language standpoint, from a biblical standpoint, the word faith, PISTIS in Greek, means persuasion. It is a word that describes the influence and the ministry of God's Spirit over our lives. He's persuading us. He's ministering to us.



And so, when James says faith without works is dead, and you might pencil in there if you are a note taker that the word "works," when we see it in Chapter 2 means activity. Faith without activity is dead. He'll even say in Chapter 2, if you say you have the faith but there's no activity, can that faith save you?

And the answer is no. He even includes the answer in his question. He says no, it can't. That's just human faith. That's just an intellectual belief and agreement.

Since faith is a word that describes the presence and activity of God's Spirit in a person's life, faith without activity is a dead faith. With faith being the moving and ministering of God's Spirit, if God's Spirit isn't there and active in your life, you have a dead faith.

That's from a biblical perspective. That's not religious, and especially here in America, where faith is being promoted as coming from man, human beings, that we produce the faith, that we have to believe in order for God to bless us. Faith without works is dead.

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 3):

But James has some very, very hard and very deep teachings for us, even to the point that he says that if you become a friend to this world, you have placed yourself as an enemy of God.

So which one do you want to do? Do you want Satan to be your enemy where all he can do is rattle our cages in the physical realm. He can't stop us from following Christ. He can't stop us from having a relationship with Christ. He can't take us away from Christ. He can just hassle us.

So, would I rather have Satan be my enemy, or God? And that's the question and the encouragement that these believing Jews were given, which means that there's going to be teaching and encouragement that even goes beyond what we need to know, because we don't have their difficult circumstances.

But the teachings are good. They're true, and especially when he's teaching about faith. This entire book is on faith. But after Paul's writings comes the Jewish literature. That would be the book of Hebrews through the book of Revelation. Under the Jewish literature, you'll see all of the Jewish literature, Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation.

And again, the book of Revelation is best understood from a Jewish perspective, because of the 404 verses in the book of Revelation, there are 800 allusions and quotes from the Old Testament brought over into the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation was written because of Jewish believers who were suffering and even some sitting in prison waiting to die. The book of Revelation is to show them that even if they did die for their faith, the victory would be later when Jesus comes back.

So, it's the whole panorama of what we have in the scriptures of everything from creation to the end of the world in one book. And we have to handling these from a Jewish perspective. And I think that you will see that it makes more sense that way than to say that James is writing to the Christians in our day.

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 2):

As we get more into 1 Peter, he says don't think it's strange that you're going through fiery trials, because in the physical, there's going to be a challenge by Satan to get us to stop trusting the Lord. Because of our natural human senses that we function in naturally, we have a tendency to judge the Lord and His faithfulness based on the help we receive in our physical circumstances.

And these brothers are turning it around and saying no, the difficult circumstances, and we see this in 1 Peter Chapter 4, that difficulty accompanies salvation because we're talking about two different realms. We're talking about the teaching of scripture that tells us that Satan is the god of this world, the physical realm that we live in. Satan is the spiritual force that's energizing this worlds system and all the physical things around us.

So, once we switch from living according to our fleshly desires, and we surrender our life to Christ, then everything is reversed. We're no longer at war with God. We're now at war with Satan, or else he is with us, because we have said I'm out of your system and I now belong to Christ. But I still physically live in Satan's system. It's just that he does not own me, he does not possess me. But I still have to go out into his system and trust the Lord.

So, everything is reversed once you get saved. What used to be friendly to you in the physical realm, even the people who used to be friendly to you in the physical realm, they will no longer be friendly. And the circumstances will be very difficult, trying to get us to the point where we get discouraged and just quit in our trusting of the Lord because we think trusting the Lord is going to change our physical circumstance. And we get tired of waiting, and sometimes the circumstances get worse. So, we say "Why trust the Lord?"

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES (Part 1):

Before I share the introduction to the book of James, I just want to mention a few things. In case you haven't noticed, the further we get into the New Testament, the deeper the teaching is, as far as for believers. Starting with the book of Hebrews, and going through the book of Revelation, this is what is called the Jewish Literature section of the bible.

And what makes it so good for us to study is that these letters are written to Jews who believe, but who have been scattered from their homeland.

So, we are studying teaching and instruction given by, in this instance, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, to all of the Jews who have been scattered from out of their homeland and away from their families.

Some of them had to leave with just the clothes on their back. Most of them were very poor because they were in a foreign place with Gentiles. So, the overall circumstance in which they are in is very, very difficult. And that's why these letters written to the believing Jews emphasize faith, because that's what's being challenged in the book of Hebrews.

Faith was challenged because the writer of Hebrews said that the just shall live by faith. But some of those Hebrew or Jewish people were thinking of going back into the old religious system of Judaism because of how difficult it is to follow Christ. And so, it emphasizes to live by faith means to trust the Lord no matter how difficult the circumstances, or to put it another way, to trust the Lord in the most difficult of circumstances.

Cont.

The early church fathers were refuting false teachings I mentioned in my post. Such false teachings were taken seriously and addressed strongly by these leaders. Today we more than likely agree to disagree, but at that time, the defense of the faith passed down from the apostles was very important and paramount to the spiritual health and well-being of the church. I wish more of this was done in today's churches by leaders.

You can also look up: "A list of Christological heresies" and find a chart or listing of the false teachings that arose in the early centuries. (Some of these I listed). This is our history, the history of the body of Christ. Just as we read of the history of the people of God in the Old Testament and the New Testament, we can benefit by learning about church history after the apostles up to this time. Of course, I agree that the OT and NT are inspired by God, but factual history is not outside of what we can use to learn more about the church. We use science to find out about our world and photography to see parts of our world that we have not visited and take these as factual. So, we can also find out facts about church history. None of these are forbidden in Scripture.

Jema, I am a pretty open-minded person and learn much from others, whether the other person is alive now or deceased. We are given to one another in Christ to help one another. That is the aim of my post to you. God's blessings to you today.

Hello Jema,

The reason that I used an historical source is that the church continued after the death of all the apostles and the writing of the NT Scriptures. The first council was the one in Jerusalem, probably about 50 A.D. in Acts 15 where the topic of what of the Mosaic Law the Gentile believers were to follow. Paul and Barnabas attended this council, meeting with Peter, James, and perhaps a few others. The topic of the Trinity or divinity of Jesus was not discussed at this one. You can find out what the early bishops (the first ones appointed by the apostles and subsequent ones by the preceding bishops) spoke about these two topics but you will not find the writings of these bishops in the Bible.

I adhere to the teaching of the Word. It is my source for God's revelation to man. However, History is source to discover how the early saints believed and how the church functioned over the centuries. learning such history is not contrary to learning the Word nor is it forbidden by the Word.

I looked up the teachings of Polycarp, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, for example, to find out what they taught on these topics. They lived in the late first century into the second century. For me, what they taught is important because they were so close in time to the teachings of the apostles and it gives us information about what was passed down to them before the NT was compiled and there were just the letters/writings of the apostles copied and passed to the churches.

If we look at what is taught in the churches today and compare that to what was taught in the Scriptures and practiced in the early church years we can see that what we do today is very different from then. This does not mean that all of what we do today is wrong. It just contrasts what was practiced early on.

The early church leaders did need to refute false doctrines as the Scriptures instructed. See Titus 1:10-16; 2 Peter 2; all of Jude; 1 John 4:1; 1 Tim. 6:3. ... cont.

More than opinion is revelation. Matthew 24 has in part been LITERALLY fulfilled. In the year 70AD, verses 1 and 2 were fulfilled with the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world during 1878 years of severe plagues and curses, in addition to insufferable pain, according to Deuteronomy 28:15-68, 53 verses of strong and severe punishments.

Now, verses 3 to 8 are being fulfilled, the beginning of sorrows, and the decay of the Churches with the development of apostasies and iniquities-verses 9 to 14.

Then, the last week- Daniel 9:27- is about to start and with this event the persecutions of the first half of the week-42 months- Revelation 13:5- by the Beast of sea, culminating with the establishment of the Abomination of Desolation for 1,290 days in the second half of the week (plus 30 days)-verses 15 to 27 combined with Daniel 12:11 and 11:v.31. It is the END of this world and a sign of the coming of JESUS: Matthew 24:3 combined with Revelation 11:15-18. Blessed is he who waits and comes at 1335 days- Daniel 12:12 , 45 days after finishing the Abomination of Desolation. GET READY