Bible Discussion Replies PAGE 162

Gen.1.1-2 "In the beginning"

In order to understand the will of the Father we have to rely on the Word which was God. 'Be ye holy for I am holy' (Lev.21.8) This separation of man takes place on the world made to appear. This separation was necessary as we shall see that God separated waters above from the waters below. Gen.1.6. Like wise God the Father does not judge anyone. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."( Jn 5.22) This distinction creates an axis about which the Father Son relationship moves. Thus the Will of God, the world unseen is made to appear. Heb.11.3. Faith created the world which is framed by the word of God. This means by faith sons of Adam are separated according to faith. For this purpose the Word or the Law sets down seven days from Gen 1.3 to Gen.ch.2.1-3 Those who receive this relationship are built on two axes that run Across and Up and down. Everlasting Covenant sets 144,000 in heavenly places.

what are the two axes? The Spirit gives us the direction of a river from Eden from the east. The garden is planted by God giving us a snapshot of the earth framed by the word of God. This is Across. In terms of symbols the Spirit sets the mountain of God and the Son in terms of Zion. "therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation." (Isa.28.16) In the vision of Zechariah we see the north south axes. "These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth./The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country; and the white go forth after them; and the grisled go forth toward the south country."(Zec.6.5-6) These spirits are angels and his ministers of fire. The angels keeping two axes Up and down and Across are essential to follow the narrative of the Bible.

What's the question? The earth? The Dino's?

MotherMac here:

Good to see here you again.

Annotated Gen.1.1-2

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Two worlds are framed by the word of God. The Word was God and he was with God from the beginning. God has no beginning nor ending so the creation is about setting forth the complete will of the God the Father and the Son shall complete it. Heb.11.3. In terms of the Father Son relationship the creation moves from will or Purpose and to the Son the fulfilling aspect. The Son is seated on the right hand of the Most High. So earth which is made to appear indicates v.2 "And the earth was without form, and void."The narrative now looks at the world made to appear, a natural world, which is however not the intent of the Bible. So'dont ask where are the dinos? The Bible is God breathed so man's instruction in righteousness is the focus. So we look at the earth as heaven is as high above the earth is. Now we have a direction from God a Spirit. What does the earth present?

"And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

Lorraine.

I will lift you and your husband up in prayer often. thanks for asking us to pray for your marriage.

Amen and thanks Brother Jesse.

By the way, I love your outline!

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.

God bless you.

Hi Bemtivi.

I got the notification on this one!

Thanks alot and God bless.

(James Part 7):

James 2:4 - Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

It's kind of interesting that he says judges. It makes it look like this synagogue gathering was for the purpose of judging some events or things going on amongst the brethren. How can you judge, and be impartial, and have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you're judging according to who's wealthy and who isn't? And you're treating the wealthy with honor, and treating the poor with disgrace.

And as I said, the usual condition of Jewish believers at this time was poor. If a rich person walked in, they showed favoritism towards him. Who knows, maybe he's going to throw one of those rings in the offering plate!

But there was a man by the name of Celsus who was a Roman Philosopher in A.D. 178, and he said that Christians were poor and uneducated. He also said that Christians are like a swarm of bats, or ants, creeping out of their nests, or frogs holding a symposium amidst a swamp, or worms in a convention in a corner of mud.

Obviously, Christians were not looked on as being much to society, because they were very poor. But this played on them as far as their judgments go. Not only did they favor the rich, but they favored the rich being highly sensitive to that because of how poor they were.

James 2:6 - But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

The problem: But ye have despised the poor. The proper perspective: Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? And in the Greek text, it expects the answer yes, they do. Confirmation!

(James Part 6):

James 2:3 - And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

These two people come in, and you have respect to him that wears the gay clothing, literally LAMPRA, spectacular clothing. You can imagine what this guy's clothing looked like, very flashy. You have to wear sunglasses inside just to sit with this guy!

And you say to him, Sit thou here in a good place;

They had benches along the side, and benches up front which were called the good seats of the house. So, he was called up to take one of these seats. And you say to the poor man, Stand thou there, like over in the corner, or sit here under my footstool:

Here we have a double disgrace. You're telling him to go stand over in the corner, not sit anyplace, but under my footstool. Literally that's what it says, and that's what it means. It's not just by my feet or by my footstool, but under my footstool, a place of disgrace.

Even Jesus in Matthew 23:5-6 said concerning the Pharisees, but all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries. A phylactery is a huge box that they put on their forehead with a strap, because in the OT, God said that His commandments were to be on their mind.

They had miniature versions of the Tanak (Old Testament), especially the Torah. It was a scroll. They put it inside these boxes and closed and locked the boxes. And they had this box on their head all day long, reminding them about the things of God. But of course, as human nature is, they probably started out with a little tiny one and then wound up with a huge birdhouse bouncing off their heads because the bigger the box, the "more spiritual" you are, you know?

Jesus says they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogue. Special treatment!

(James Part 5):

James 2:2 - For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

For if there come into your assembly, and the word assembly is SUNAGOGEN which means synagogue. If someone comes into your synagogue, and you had to have at least 10 Hebrew men to have an official synagogue, but if one comes into your synagogue, a man with a gold ring (literally a gold fingered man), in goodly apparel (expensive clothing).

And just to share with you about the gold ring, we're not talking about one ring that he walks in and flashes it around and all the leaders go "Oh, wow, this guy's got money!" What the people used to do in those areas where the Jews were dispersed, they used to put gold rings on their fingers to cover their knuckles. And the number of gold rings on their fingers denoted their social status. So, we're talking about somebody walking in and people saying, "He's a gold fingered man."

Now Clement, a church father of old said that Christians, believing Jews especially, are not allowed to wear more than one ring at a time. And the insignia had to be either a dove, a fish, or an anchor. If you wear more than one and it has anything on it other than a dove, a fish, or an anchor, you've gone too far. I have no idea how he figured that out? But you can see the compromise there because the believers are saying "Hey, social status depends on the rings on your finger." But Clement says you can only have one ring.

So, a man comes in with a gold ring and expensive clothing, and there come in also a poor man in vile, or old/dirty clothing; The word for vile (RUPARA) means both old and dirty. Some of these Jewish believers only had one set of clothing. What are you going to do when you get off work and the believers are going to gather together? You just show up in what you have!

(James Part 4b):

James 2:1 Continued...



So, when it says my brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's exactly what it says in the Greek text. It is the faith of Jesus Christ. It is His faith. And we have it. We have His faith that He has given to us. So, stop having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

Now that term "with respect of persons," the Greek word literally means to receive according to the face. In other words, outward appearance. If the judge recognizes you and wants to let you off the hook, he will. But that's not justice. What he is saying here is you actually have, continuously with you the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, but when you discriminate, that does not go together. God does not discriminate. He does not show partiality. And having the faith of Christ and discriminating against people, he will share with us that it is a very evil sin.

(James Part 4a):

James 2:1 Continued

Picking up where I left on faith, in Galatians 5:22, when talking about the fruit (not fruits), there's a singular fruit of God's Spirit that is made up of many parts. In other words, none of these can be separated from the others. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and notice, faith. Faith is the production of the Spirit of God, not of man.

1 Corinthians Chapter 12:9, in the explanation of the gifts of the Spirit, Paul says that faith is given by the same Spirit, and to another, gifts of healing by the same Spirit. He's presenting the fact that God's Spirit gives faith to people.

In Romans Chapter 12, Paul says to go according to the measure of faith that God gives to you. In the early church, the problem was going beyond what God wanted to do. It wasn't a lack of faith. It was going beyond faith. God gives us the faith, the persuasion, His presence, His leading, His provision, when God wants us to do something.

Also, in Revelation 2:13, this is the Lord speaking to Pergamos, He says I know your works, and where you dwell, even where Satan's seat is: and you hast not denied my faith. That's Jesus speaking. He says you have not denied (my) faith. It's the Lord's faith. He says even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwells.

And so, they did not reject the faith of Christ. When Christ's Spirit came to them, and was persuading them to trust the Lord, even in the midst of some of them even dying, they didn't reject the persuasion of God's Spirit to trust the Lord. And they received God's provision to trust Him.

Brother Spencer,

Thank you for sending this. I went over what I had put together on James 2:1 and spoke only about faith but failed to mention anything about the "respect of persons" part of this verse. I decided to add more to part 4 which I will be posting here shortly. Plus, I have just a little bit more to share about faith. I'm going to leave Part 4 as is, and pickup with Part 4a and 4b.

Thanks for bringing this up. And yes, I agree that we see some of this in the church today!

God Bless!!!

Hello!

No worries at all - I completely understand how busy life can be!

Please don't worry about it. I'm very happy you replied. As I was reflecting, this verse came to my heart:

"Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish." ( Proverbs 12:1)

And yes, I think I clicked the reply button, but maybe something happened with the notifications.

Thank you again for taking the time to answer me!

God bless you too!

Hi GiGi peace.

Thank you for asking, Il hope you and yours are okej as well. And that we cling to Jesus because in ourselves we are nothing. Rest in His love for us.

Now I don't completely agree with you on a couple of points here in your little writing. And as we wright, u have grown.

Yes, we can pour out our hearts to God. With the help of the Holy Spirit! Then you also get answers to your prayers. We are so dependent on God in Jesus Christ, by the kingdom of the Holy Spirit

Even though the darkness we used to live in. And we didn't understand it. But who can argue? When we know now that everything works for good. Or was it God Himself who put us in that path so that we would be saved. Yes. Amen! All glory to God. Do anyone belive that He will loose hope for me, us? He know the heart.

I have read the books of Moses now and will soon start with Joshua. And it amazes me that the Word has changed its meaning a bit. Because we are to understand piecemeal and divided. And it is so exciting to see what Grace the Israelites actually received, despite the law and the commandments they had to live under.

At least I wanted a change, thats 30 years + ago. And little me who is like a little pebble. Heard Jesus calling, calling me. Small and lonely, worn out and broken. And I cried out, - Yes Lord here I am! So all we have to do now is love God and His son. All Christians and pray for them without ceasing. They are God's chosen, instilled and precious. And I will continue to pray for Israel to be saved and peace for Jerusalem Amen. And have a good conscience. 1 Pet 1:22-25 And in myself I am nothing, but He who lives in me will have all glory and power. He has all power in heaven and on earth.

God blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly world in Jesus Christ's name, Amen

essau and jacob birth contrasted with perez and zerah

Thanks Brother Jesse.

I believe James 2:1 is a ongoing problem in the Church today.

"My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with RESPECT OF PERSONS."

Blessings.

Oops Bemtivi.

I meant to say "Sorry for such a "late" response on my part, I didn't get an email notifications on your reply.

God bless

Hi Bemtivi.

Thanks for responding.

I understand, Sadly 90 percent of my posts and replies is from my cellphone and rushed because I'm always working on the job or at home.

Sorry for such a response on my part, I didn't get an email notifications on your reply

Did you click on the reply button below my post?

For physical mass, to pass thru physical mass...

is extremely rare

that very few can do

Ecclesiastes 1 (cont).

All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. (verse 8).

This verse is similar to other verses in chapter 4, 5 and 6 of this same book. Also see Proverbs 27:20.

Verses 9-11

9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

These verses demonstrate that historical patterns of agriculture; warfare and technology which seem novel are not limited to today's societies which archaeological evidence is continually revealing. It appears; in fact that many structures such as the pyramids in Egypt and around the world involved advanced technology likely due to the offspring mentioned in Genesis 6.

Verse 11 therefore is perhaps different with discoveries of ancient writings; scientific dating and genealogical studies for example; but the idea here is that such information simply isn't relateable to those in the here and now and no one cares about the individuals of the past or will care about us in the future in general. If someone isn't famous which is the case for the vast majority of humanity then we can only understand general trends in society or perhaps individual physical characteristics but not the soul of the person.

Verse 12 repeats the comment about Solomon being King of Israel; and the end of the next passage of thought is in verses 17-18

17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. We are reminded of 2 Cor. 7:10 and 1 Cor. 1:21.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-5.

1The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

This is repeated again to clearly indicate that Solomon was the writer of this text.

2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

This is a theme throughout the book.



3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

There are virtues mentioned later on in this book regarding work and man enjoying a simple life with his wife. There will be further examination regarding the obsession of material possessions and how greater gain takes away from rest at night and how time makes the gains of someone fade away as to the significance of everyone despite their current status in life. We also see that the earth abideth forever in verse 4; which corresponds to Psalm 104:5 and likely many other passages and that passage seems to indicate the orbit and core of the earth would remain even after the Millennium.

5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

These verses indicate the cycle of the daily movement of the sun due to the earth's rotation; the resulting winds from its rotation that bring weather systems in the northern hemisphere down from the north with colder and denser air then return back northward with the temperate and tropical wind cycles; and finally the hydrological cycld of precipitation and evaporation in verse 7. We see corresponding verses in Job 36:26-28.

Hello Free,

I hope you are doing well.

We have so much to celebrate as children of God! We can never exhaust our response to His glorious grace in our life, choosing us in Christ before creation. We did not ask to be chosen. He made that decision independently of us and our choices. It was according to His wise counsel, perfect will, and good pleasure to the glory of His grace. (Ephesians Chapter 1)!

Therefore, none of us can boast in ourselves in this matter. It is all of God who did all that was necessary to regenerate us, call us by the gospel, give us faith and a willingness to believe this true gospel and put our faith in the Father's eternal Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. We boast in God, who made us alive when we were dead in sin and in rebellion to Him, not willing or able to turn from sin to God. This regeneration is not because we put our faith in Jesus, it is the reason we can turn from sin to Christ.

Praise to the Lord always!

Hello again, Forgiven3

Did you happen to find the commentary sections on Romans Chapter 8 as I relayed to you?

The default commentary is Matthew Henry's. But you can switch to a couple others that are tabbed at the bottom of the Henry's commentary.

Gill wrote a verse by verse commentary. That may be the most helpful to you.

You can also google: Gill's Bible Commentary and find it on other sites.

Hello! S Spencer,

Thank you so much for your kind, corrections and encouragement!

I really appreciate your time and your care in explaining everything so clearly. I may not have put it across as clearly as I intended; I need to improve both my grammar and my vocabulary, is still very basic, and maybe I didn't express myself very well. What I meant was more about the Bible showing us the lives and perspectives of people like Moses, Ruth, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew, Paul and both others - each one who was part of giving us the Bread of Life, by God's inspiration. But maybe I didn't explain it properly, and I see now that I could have made my thoughts clearer.

God bless you!

Hello, we met with our neighbor and suggested that he could buy the piece of property from us at------$$.

He said he'd think about it and get back to us this week. We are hoping he will take our offer since we told him the estimated going cost of the property per sq. foot was between $7-$10 per sq. ft. The price we gave him was about 50-70% less than the going rate. We hope he realizes that this is a deal and not try to counter back for a lower price. Also, the price we quoted was much less than it would cost to take this matter to court.

So, please continue to pray that he will agree to the terms we laid out and give up on his plan to take the land from us for free due to a "squatter's law" here in Washington state. We are being very generous towards him. I pray that he will realize this.

(James Part 4):

James 2:1 - My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

First of all, he says my brethren. So, these are believing Jews. Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

I'll try and break this down:

My brethren, have not. The word have (also translated hold), is what is called the Present Tense. And it literally means stop continually having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons. It shows that the problem is ongoing. He's literally saying stop continuously having the faith of our Lord with respect of persons. And that is a command!

Now notice it says have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more modern translations again change this to faith (in) Jesus Christ, not faith (of) Jesus Christ. That is a major problem in understanding the bible and the biblical presentation of faith.

If I may summarize it because it's going to be important for this Greek Perspective study as well. The word faith, PISTIS in Greek, means persuasion. PEITHOS is the goddess of persuasion in Greek understanding. It is a word that describes the presence and activity of God's Spirit. It is an unseen movement, a persuasion. And it's called PISTIS, faith.

Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is the author and finisher, and it says of "our" faith, but the word "our" is the definite article "the." There's no our in the Greek text. He is the author and finisher of the faith. He's the source, and He brings faith to its completion.

(James Part 3):

James 1:12 - Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Blessed is the man that endures trials. The word blessed, MAKARIOS, literally means to experience the fullness of something. It's the same word used in the beatitudes, to experience the fullness of something. The blessedness in the believer's life, especially the poor believer, is that they get to experience all the fullness of Christ. They're not distracted with the material wealth of the world.

That person is blessed. The most blessed person in the world is somebody who experiences the fullness of Christ with them during the day, all day long. We have the fullness of Christ according to Colossians Chapter 2. But we don't experience the fullness of Christ in our personal relationship with Him because we are distracted.

And that's what Spiritual growth is. The more we grow in Christ, the more we have His influence in our life. So blessed is the man who endures trials: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those that love him.

(James Part 2):

James 1:2 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

And if you remember, the word count means to let the leading thought of your mind be all joy when you fall into various trials. Why is that? It's because of knowing something in Verse 3.

James 1:3 - Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

Knowing this, that your trial of the faith, and I shared earlier that the word "your" in the Greek text goes with the word trial, not the word faith. Your trial of the faith is working out endurance.

What he's telling them is that we are to live by faith and trust the Lord and not trust our circumstances and not trust our feelings. And we are to do this by remaining under our circumstances and trusting the Lord.

And we experience two things when we do that. Number one, we experience Christ Himself. He's the one who sustains us. And number two, we get to learn about the ways of the Lord to pass on to others.

James 1:9 - Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

Now wait a minute! Look at the positions here. The term "low degree" is the same word used for a poor man. And we will soon see that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith. It says let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. So, a Christian in poverty is at the highest exalted position.

James 1:10 - But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

But the rich, let him rejoice. You have to bring the verb down from Verse 9. But the rich, let him rejoice, in that he is made low. Can you just hear the rich man saying, "Yesterday I was a billionaire, but today my finances are all gone, so praise the Lord, I just got exalted?" Let him rejoice, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

Biblical Greek Perspectives:

(James Part 1): James is part of a collection of books in the New Testament that are called the Jewish Literature which begins with the Book of Hebrews and continues through to the end of the Book of Revelation. The theme of the book is found in James 2:20, "Faith without works is dead."

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.

Verse 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.

Hebrews gave us a lot on faith and the book of James will give us even more. In fact, James can be outlined as follows:

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 it might be about faith?