Principles of Biblical Interpretation

The Importance and Value of Proper Bible Study  

1.           Get absolutely right with God yourself by the absolute surrender of your will to Him.

2.           Be determined to find out just what God intended to teach and not what you wish Him to teach.

3.           Get the most accurate text.

4.           Find the most exact and literal meaning of the text.

5.           Note the exact force of each word used.

6.           Interpret the words used in any verse according to Bible usage.

7.           Interpret the words of each author in the Bible with a regard to the particular usage of that author.

8.           Interpret individual verses with a regard to the context.

9.           Interpret individual passages in the light of parallel or related passages.

10.      Interpret obscure passages in the light of passages that are perfectly plain.

11.      Interpret any passage in the Bible as those who were addressed would have understood it.

12.      Interpret what belongs to the Christian as belonging to the Christian; what belongs to the Jew, as belonging to the Jew, and what belongs to the Gentiles, as belonging to the Gentiles.

13.      Interpret each writer with a view to the opinions the writer opposed.

14.      Interpret poetry as poetry and interpret prose as prose.

15.        The Holy Spirit is the best interpreter of the Bible.

Profitable Bible Study by R. A. Torrey

There are many profitable methods of Bible Study. There is something, however, in Bible study more important than the best methods, that is, the fundamental conditions of profitable study. He who meets these conditions will get more out of the Bible, while pursuing the poorest method, than will he who does not meet them, while pursuing the best method. Many a one who is eagerly asking, “What method shall I pursue in my Bible study?” needs something that goes far deeper than a new and better method.

1. The first of the fundamental conditions of the most profitable Bible study is that the student must be born again.

The Bible is a spiritual book, it “expresses spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:13), and only a spiritual man can understand its deepest and most characteristic and most precious teachings. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Spiritual discernment can be obtained in but one way, by being born again. “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3).

No mere knowledge of the human languages in which the Bible was written, however extensive and accurate it may be, will qualify one to understand and appreciate it. One must understand the divine language in which it was written as well, the language of the Holy Spirit. A person who understands the language of the Holy Spirit, but who does not understand a word of Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic, will get more out of the Bible than one who knows all about Greek and Hebrew and cognate languages, but is not born again, and, consequently, does not understand the language of the Holy Spirit. It is a well-demonstrated fact that many common men and women who are entirely ignorant of any knowledge of the original tongues in which the Bible was written have a knowledge of the real contents of the Bible, its actual teaching, in its depth and fullness and beauty, that surpasses that of many learned professors in theological faculties.

One of the greatest follies of the day, is to get unregenerate men to teach the Bible because of their rare knowledge of the human forms of speech in which the book was written. It would be as reasonable to set a man to teach art because he had an accurate technical knowledge of paints. It requires esthetic sense to make a man a competent teacher of art. It requires spiritual sense to make a man a competent teacher of the Bible. The man who has esthetic discernment but little or no technical knowledge of paint would be a far more competent critic of works of art than a man who has a great technical knowledge of paint but no esthetic discernment; and so the man who has no technical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew but has spiritual discernment is a far more competent critic of the Bible than he who has a rare technical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew but no spiritual discernment. It is exceedingly unfortunate that, in some quarters, more emphasis is laid on a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew in training for the ministry than is laid on spiritual life and its consequent spiritual discernment.

Unregenerate men should not be forbidden to study the Bible, for the Word of God is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses in the New Birth (1 Peter 1:23; James 1:18); but it should be distinctly understood that, while there are teachings in the Bible that the natural man can understand, and beauties which he can see, its most distinctive and characteristic teachings are beyond his grasp, and its highest beauties belong to a world in which he has no vision. The first fundamental condition of the most profitable Bible study is, then, “You must be born again.” You cannot study the Bible to the greatest profit if you have not been born again. Its best treasures are sealed to you.

2. The second condition of the most profitable study is a love for the Bible.

A man who eats with an appetite will get far more good out of his meal than one who eats from a sense of duty. It is good when a student of the Bible can say with Job, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12), or with Jeremiah, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty” (Jeremiah 15:16). Many come to the table God has spread in His Word with no appetite for spiritual food, and go mincing here and there and grumbling about everything. Spiritual indigestion lies at the bottom of much modern criticism of the Bible.

But how can one get a love for the Bible? First of all, by being born again. Where there is life there is likely to be appetite. A dead man never hungers. This brings us back to the first condition. But going beyond this, the more there is of vitality, the more there is of hunger. Abounding life means abounding hunger for the Word. Study of the Word stimulates love for the Word. The author can well remember the time when he had more appetite for books about the Bible than he had for the Bible itself, but with increasing study there has come increasing love for the Book. Bearing in mind who the author of the Book is, what its purpose is, what its power is, what the riches of its contents are, will go far toward stimulating love and appetite for the Book.

3. The third condition is willingness to do hard work.

Solomon has given a graphic picture of the Bible student who gets the most profit out of his study, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-5). Now, seeking for silver and searching for hidden treasure means hard work, and he who wishes to get not only the silver but the gold as well out of the Bible, and find its “hidden treasure,” must make up his mind to dig. It is not glancing at the Word, or reading the Word, but studying the Word, meditating on the Word, pondering the Word, that brings the richest yields.

The reason why many get so little out of their Bible reading is simply because they are not willing to think. Intellectual laziness lies at the bottom of a large percent of fruitless Bible reading. People are constantly crying for new methods of Bible study, but what many of them wish is simply some method of Bible study by which they can get all the good out of the Bible without work. If someone could tell lazy Christians some method of Bible study whereby they could put the sleepiest ten minutes of the day, just before they go to bed, into Bible study, and get the profit out of it that God intends His children shall get out of the study of His Word, that would be just what they desire. But it can’t be done. Men must be willing to work, and work hard, if they wish to dig out the treasures of infinite wisdom and knowledge and blessing which God has stored up in His Word.

A business friend once asked me in a hurried call to tell him “in a word” how to study his Bible. I replied, “Think.” The Psalmist pronounces that man “blessed” whose “delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). The Lord commanded Joshua to meditate on it day and night, and assured him that as a result of this meditation, “you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).

Of Mary, the mother of Jesus, we read, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). In this way alone can one study the Bible to the greatest profit. One pound of beef well chewed and digested and assimilated will give more strength than tons of beef merely glanced at; and one verse of Scripture chewed and digested and assimilated will give more strength than whole chapters simply skimmed. Weigh every word you read in the Bible. Look at it. Turn it over and over. The most familiar passages get a new meaning in this way. Spend fifteen minutes on each word in Psalm 23:1 (“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”), or Philippians 4:19 (“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”), and see if it is not so.

4. The fourth condition is a will wholly surrendered to God.

Jesus said, “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:17). A surrendered will gives that clearness of spiritual vision which is necessary to understand God’s Book. Many of the difficulties and obscurities of the Bible rise wholly from the fact that the will of the student is not surrendered to the will of the author of the Book. It is remarkable how clear and simple and beautiful passages that once puzzled us become when we are brought to that place where we say to God, “I surrender my will unconditionally to You. I have no will but Yours. Teach me Your will.” A surrendered will will do more to make the Bible an open book than a university education. It is simply impossible to get the largest profit out of your Bible study until you do surrender your will to God. You must be very definite about this.

There are many who say, “Oh, yes, my will, I think, is surrendered to God,” and yet it is not. They have never gotten alone with God and said intelligently and definitely to him, “O God, I here and now give myself up to You, for You to command me, and lead me, and shape me, and send me, and do with me, absolutely as You will.” Such an act is a wonderful key to unlock the treasure house of God’s Word. The Bible becomes a new book when a man does that. Doing that brought a complete transformation in the author’s theology and life and ministry.

5. The fifth condition is very closely related to the fourth. The student of the Bible who would get the greatest profit out of his studies must be obedient to its teachings as soon as he sees them.

It was good advice James gave to early Christians, and to us, “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). There are a good many who consider themselves Bible students who are deceiving themselves in this way today. They see what the Bible teaches, but they do not follow it, and they soon lose their power to see it. Truth obeyed leads to more truth. Truth disobeyed destroys the capacity for discovering truth. There must be not only a general surrender of the will, but specific, practical obedience to each new Word of God discovered. There is no place where the law, “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him,” is more gloriously certain on the one hand and more sternly unavoidable on the other than in the matter of using or refusing the truth revealed in the Bible.

Use, and you get more; refuse, and you lose all. Do not study the Bible for the mere gratification of intellectual curiosity, but to find out how to live and please God. Whatever duty you find commanded in the Bible, do it at once. Whatever good you see in any Bible character, imitate it immediately. Whatever mistake you note in the actions of Bible men and women, scrutinize your own life to see if you are making the same mistake, and if you find you are, correct it immediately. James compares the Bible to a mirror (James 1:23, 24). The chief good of a mirror is to show you if there is anything out of order about you; if you find there is, you can set it right. Use the Bible in that way. Obeying the truth you already see will solve the mysteries in the verses you do not yet understand. Disobeying the truth you see darkens the whole world of truth. This is the secret of much of the skepticism and error of the day. Men see the truth, but do not follow it–then it is gone.

I knew a bright and promising young minister. He made rapid advancement in the truth. He took very advanced ground on one point especially, and the storm came. One day he said to his wife, “It is very nice to believe this, but we need not speak too much about it.” They began, or he, at least, to hide their testimony. The wife died and he drifted. The Bible became to him a sealed book. Faith reeled. He publicly renounced his faith in some of the fundamental truths of the Bible. He seemed to lose his grip even on the doctrine of immortality. What was the cause of it all? Truth not lived and stood for flees. Today that man is much admired and applauded by some, but daylight has given place to darkness in his soul.

6. The sixth condition is a childlike mind.

God reveals His deepest truths to babes. No age needs more than our own to lay to heart the words of Jesus, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25). We must be babes if God is to reveal His truth to us, and we are to understand His Word. A child is not full of its own wisdom. It recognizes its ignorance and is ready to be taught. It does not oppose the ideas of its teachers to those of its own. It is in that spirit we should come to the Bible if we are to get the most profit out of our study.

Do not come to the Bible full of your own ideas, and seeking from it a confirmation of them. Come rather to find out what are God’s ideas as He has revealed them there. Come not to find a confirmation of your own opinion, but to be taught what God may be pleased to teach. If a man comes to the Bible just to find his ideas taught there, he will find them; but if he comes recognizing his own ignorance, just as a little child to be taught, he will find something infinitely better than his own ideas, even the mind of God. We see why it is that many persons cannot see things which are plainly taught in the Bible. The doctrine taught is not their idea, of which they are so full that there is no room left for that which the Bible actually teaches.

We have an illustration of this in the apostles themselves at one stage in their training. In Mark 9:31, we read, “He was teaching his disciples. He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.'” Now, that is as plain and definite as language can make it, but it was utterly contrary to the ideas of the apostles as to what was to happen to the Christ. So we read in the next verse, “But they did not understand what he meant.” Isn’t that amazing? But is it any more amazing than our own inability to comprehend plain statements in the Bible when they run counter to our preconceived ideas?

Problems many Christians find with portions of the Sermon on the Mount would be plain enough if we just came to Christ like a child to be taught what to believe and do, rather than coming as full-grown men who already know it all, and who must find some interpretations of Christ’s words that will fit into our mature and infallible philosophy. Many a man is so full of an unbiblical theology he has been taught that it takes him a lifetime to get rid of it and understand the clear teaching of the Bible.

“Oh, what can this verse mean?” many a bewildered man cries. Why, it means what it plainly says; but what you are after is not the meaning God has manifestly put into it, but the meaning you can by some ingenious trick of exegesis twist out of it and make it fit into your scheme. Don’t come to the Bible to find out what you can make it mean, but to find out what God intended it to mean. Men often miss the real truth of a verse by saying, “But that can be interpreted this way.” Oh, yes, so it can, but is that the way God intended it to be interpreted? We all need to pray often if we would get the most profit out of our Bible study, “Oh, God, make me a little child. Empty me of my own ideas. Teach me Your own mind. Make me ready like a little child to receive all that You have to say, no matter how contrary it is to what I have thought before.” How the Bible opens up to one who approaches it in that way! How it closes up to the wise fool, who thinks he knows everything, and imagines he can give points to Peter and Paul, and even to Jesus Christ and to God Himself! Someone has well said the best method of Bible study is “the baby method.”

I was once talking with a minister friend about what seemed to be the clear teaching of a certain passage. “Yes,” he replied, “but that doesn’t agree with my philosophy.” This man was sincere, yet he did not have the childlike spirit, which is an essential condition of the most profitable Bible study. But there are many who approach the Bible in the same way. It is a great point gained in Bible study when we are brought to realize that an infinite God knows more than we, that, indeed, our highest wisdom is less than the knowledge of the most ignorant babe compared with His. But we so easily and so constantly forget this that every time we open our Bibles we would do well to get down humbly before God and say, “Father, I am but a child, teach me.”

7. The seventh condition of studying the Bible to the greatest profit is that we study it as the Word of God.

The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Church of the Thessalonians, thanked God without ceasing that when they received the Word of God they “accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Well might he thank God for that, and well may we thank God when we get to the place where we receive the Word of God as the Word of God. Not that one who does not believe the Bible is the Word of God should be discouraged from studying it. Indeed, one of the best things that one who does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God can do, if he is honest, is to study it. The author of this book once doubted utterly that the Bible was the Word of God, and the firm confidence that he has today that the Bible is the Word of God has come more from the study of the Book itself than from anything else. Those who doubt it are more usually those who study about the Book, than those who dig into the actual teachings of the Book itself. But while the best book of Christian evidences is the Bible, and while the most utter skeptic should be encouraged to study it, we will not get the largest measure of profit out of that study until we reach the point where we become convinced that the Bible is God’s Word, and when we study it as such.

There is a great difference between believing theoretically that the Bible is God’s Word and studying it as God’s Word. Thousands would tell you that they believe the Bible is God’s Word who do not study it as God’s Word. Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves four things.

(1) First, it involves the unquestioning acceptance of its teachings when definitely ascertained, even when they may appear unreasonable or impossible.

Reason demands that we submit our judgment and reasonings to the statements of infinite wisdom. There is nothing more irrational than rationalism, which makes the finite wisdom the test of infinite wisdom, and submits the teachings of God’s omniscience to the approval of man’s judgment. It is the sublimest and absurdest conceit that says, “This cannot be true, though God says it, for it does not agree with my reason.” “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” (Romans 9:20). Real human wisdom, when it finds infinite wisdom, bows before it and says, “Speak what You will and I will believe.” When we have once become convinced that the Bible is God’s Word its teachings must be the end of all controversy and discussion. A “thus says the Lord” will settle every question. Yet there are many who profess to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and if you show them what the Bible clearly teaches on some disputed point, they will shake their heads and say, “Yes, but I think so and so,” or “Doctor —–, or Professor this, our church doesn’t teach that way.” There is little profit in that sort of Bible study.

(2) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the second place, absolute reliance on all its promises in all their length and breadth.

He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will not discount any one of its promises one iota. He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will say, “God, who cannot lie, has promised,” and will not attempt to make God a liar by trying to make one of His promises mean less than it says. He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will be on the lookout for promises, and as soon as he finds one he will seek to ascertain just what it means, and as soon as he discovers what it means, he will step right out on that promise and risk everything on its full meaning. That is one of the secrets of profitable Bible study.

Search for promises and appropriate them as fast as you find them, which is done by meeting the conditions and risking all on them. That is the way to make your own all the fullness of blessing God has for you. This is the key to all the treasures of God’s grace. Happy is the man who has so learned to study the Bible as God’s Word that he is ready to claim for himself every new promise as it appears, and to risk everything on it.

(3) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the third place, obedience–prompt, exact obedience, without asking any questions to its every precept.

Obedience may seem hard, it may seem impossible, but God has commanded it and I have nothing to do but to obey and leave the results with God. If you would get the very most profit out of your Bible study resolve that from this time you will claim every clear promise and obey every plain command, and that as to the promises and commands whose intent is not yet clear you will try to get their meaning made clear.

(4) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the fourth place, studying it in God’s presence.

When you read a verse of Scripture hear the voice of the living God speaking directly to you in these written words. There is new power and attractiveness in the Bible when you have learned to hear a living, present Person, God our Father, Himself talking directly to you in these words. One of the most fascinating and inspiring statements in the Bible is, “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:24). We can have God’s glorious companionship any moment we please by simply opening His Word and letting the living and ever-present God speak to us through it. With what holy awe and strange and unutterable joy one studies the Bible if he studies it in this way! It is heaven come down to earth.

8. The eighth and last condition of the most profitable Bible study is prayerfulness.

The Psalmist prayed, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (Psalm 119:18). Every one who desires to get the greatest profit out of his Bible study needs to offer that or a similar prayer every time he undertakes the study of the Word. Few keys open so many strong boxes that contain hidden treasure as prayer. Few clues unravel so many difficulties. Few microscopes will disclose so many beauties hidden from the eye of the ordinary observer. What new light often shines from an old familiar text as you bend over it in prayer! I believe in studying the Bible a good deal on your knees. When one reads an entire book through on his knees–and this is easily done–that book has a new meaning and becomes a new book. One ought never to open the Bible to read it without at least lifting the heart to God in silent prayer that He will interpret it, illumine its pages by the light of His Spirit.

It is a rare privilege to study any book under the immediate guidance and instruction of its author, and this is the privilege of us all in studying the Bible. When one comes to a passage that is difficult to understand or difficult to interpret, instead of giving it up, or rushing to some learned friend, or to some commentary, he should lay that passage before God, and ask Him to explain it to him, pleading God’s promise, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt” (James 1:5-6). It is simply wonderful how the seemingly most difficult passages become plain by this treatment.

Harry Morehouse, one of the most remarkable Bible scholars among unlearned men, used to say that whenever he came to a passage in the Bible which he could not understand, he would search through the Bible for some other passage that threw light on it, and lay it before God in prayer, and that he had never found a passage that did not yield to this treatment. The author of this book has had a quite similar experience. Some years ago, accompanied by a friend, I was making a tour of Franconian Switzerland, and visiting some of the more famous zoolithic caves. One day a rural letter carrier stopped us and asked if we would like to see a cave of rare beauty and interest, away from the beaten tracks of travel. Of course, we said, yes. He led us through the woods and underbrush to the mouth of the cave, and we entered. All was dark and uncanny. He discussed greatly on the beauty of the cave, telling us of altars and fantastic formations, but we could see absolutely nothing. Now and then lie uttered a note to warn us to have a care, as near our feet lay a gulf the bottom of which had never been discovered. We began to fear that we might be the first discoverers of the bottom. There was nothing pleasant about the whole affair.

But as soon as a magnesium taper was lighted, all became different. There were the stalagmites rising from the floor to meet the stalactites as they came down from the ceiling. There were the beautiful and fantastic formations on every hand, and all glistening in fairy like beauty in the brilliant light. So I have often thought it was with many a passage of Scripture. Others tell you of its beauty, but you cannot see it. It looks dark and intricate and forbidding and dangerous, but when God’s own light is kindled there by prayer how different all becomes in an instant. You see a beauty that language cannot express, and that only those can appreciate who have stood there in the same light. He who would understand and love his Bible must be much in prayer. Prayer will do more than a college education to make the Bible an open and a glorious book. Perhaps the best lesson I learned in a German university, where I had the privilege of receiving the instruction of one of the most noted and most gifted Bible teachers of any age, was that which came through the statement of one who knew him that Professor Dehtzsch worked out much of his teaching on his knees.

R. A. Torrey Archive 

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THE CERTAINTY OF THE PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST

THE CERTAINTY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE
PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
FROM THE DEADBY  R. A. TORREY, D. D.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine. It is mentioned directly one hundred and four or more times in the New Testament. It was the most prominent and cardinal point in the apostolic testimony. When the apostolic company, after the apostasy of Judas Iscariot, felt it necessary to complete their number again by the addition of one to take the place Of Judas Iscariot, it was in order that he might “be a witness with us of His resurrection” (Acts 1:21,22). The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the one point that Peter emphasized in his great sermon on the Day of Pentecost. His whole sermon centered in that fact. Its key-note was, “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:32, cf. vs. 24-31).

When the Apostles were filled again with the Holy Spirit some days later, the one central result was that “with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” The central doctrine that the Apostle Paul preached to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill was Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:18, cf. Acts 23:6; 1 Corinthians 15:15). The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the two fundamental truths of the Gospel, the other being His atoning death. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1,3,4.”Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

This was the glad tidings, first, that Christ died for our sins and made atonement; and second, that He rose again. The crucifixion loses its meaning without the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the death of Christ was only the heroic death of a noble martyr. With the resurrection, it is the atoning death of the Son of God. It shows that death to be of sufficient value to cover all our sins, for it was the sacrifice of the Son of God. In it we have an all-sufficient ground for knowing that the blackest sin is atoned for. Disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christian faith is vain. “If Christ be not risen,” cries Paul, “then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). And later he adds, “If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins.” Paul, as the context clearly shows, is talking about the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one doctrine that has power to save any one who believes it with the heart. As we read in Romans 10:9, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

To know the power of Christ’’s resurrection is one of the highest ambitions of the intelligent believer, to attain which he sacrifices all things and counts them but refuse (Philippians 3:8-10 R. V.). While the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine, it is also the Gibraltar of Christian evidence, and the Waterloo of infidelity and rationalism. If the Scriptural assertions of Christ’’s resurrection can be established as historic certainties, the claims and doctrines Of Christianity rest upon an impregnable foundation. On the other hand, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead cannot be established, Christianity must go. It was a true instinct that led a leading and brilliant agnostic in England to say, that there is no use wasting time discussing the other miracles. The essential question is, Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? adding, that if He did, it was easy enough to believe the other miracles; but, if not, the other miracles must go.

Are the statements contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ statements of fact or are they fiction, fables, myths? There are three separate lines of proof that the statements contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ are exact statements of historic fact.

1. THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTHFULNESS OF THE GOSPEL NARRATIVES

This is an altogether satisfactory argument. The external proofs of the authenticity and truthfulness of the Gospel narratives are overwhelming, but the argument is long and intricate and it would take a volume to discuss it satisfactorily. The other arguments are so completely sufficient and overwhelming and convincing to a candid mind that we can do without this, good as it is in its place. The next argument is from

2. THE INTERNAL PROOFS OF THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE GOSPEL RECORDS

This argument is thoroughly conclusive, and we shall state it briefly in the pages which follow. We shall not assume anything whatever. We shall not assume that the four Gospel records are true history; we shall not assume that the four Gospels were written by the men whose names they bear, though it could be easily proven that they were; we shall not even assume that they were written in the century in which Jesus is alleged to have lived and died and risen again, nor in the next century, nor in the next. We will assume absolutely nothing. We will start out with a fact which we all know to be a fact, namely, that we have the four Gospels today, whoever wrote them and whenever they were written. We shall place these four Gospels side by side, and see if we can discern in them the marks of truth or of fiction.

1. The first thing that strikes us as we compare these Gospels one with another is that they are four separate and independent accounts. This appears plainly from the apparent discrepancies in the four different accounts. These apparent discrepancies are marked and many. It would have been impossible for these four accounts to have been made up in collusion with one another, or to have been derived from One another and so many and so marked discrepancies to be found in them. There is harmony between the four accounts, but the harmony does not lie upon the surface; it comes out only by protracted and thorough study. It is precisely such a harmony as would exist between accounts written or related by several different persons, each looking at the events recorded from his own standpoint. It is precisely such a harmony as would not exist in four accounts manufactured in collusion, or derived one from the other. In four accounts manufactured in collusion, whatever of harmony there might be would appear on the surface. Whatever discrepancy there might be would only come out by minute and careful study. But with the four Gospels the case is just the opposite. Harmony comes cut by minute and careful study, and the apparent discrepancy lies upon the surface. Whether true or false, these four accounts are separate and independent from one another. (The four accounts also supplement one another, the third account sometimes reconciling apparent discrepancies between two).

These accounts must be either a record of facts that actually occurred or else fictions. If fictions, they must have been fabricated in one of two ways — either independently of one another, or in collusion with one another. They cannot have been fabricated independently of one another; the agreements are too marked and too many. It is absolutely incredible that four persons sitting down to write an account of what never occurred independently of one another should have made their stories agree to the extent that these do. On the other hand, they cannot have been made up, as we have already seen, in collusion with one another; the apparent discrepancies are too numerous and too noticeable. It is proven they were not made up independently of one another; it is proven they were not made up in collusion with one another, so we are driven to the conclusion that they were not made up at all, that they are a true relation of facts as they actually occurred. We might rest the argument here and reasonably call the case settled, but we will go on still further:

2. The next thing we notice is that each of these accounts bears striking indications of having been derived from eye witnesses. The account of an eye-witness is readily distinguishable from the account of one who is merely retailing what others have told him. Any one who is accustomed to weigh evidence in court or in historical study soon learns how to distinguish the report of an eye witness from mere hearsay evidence. Any careful student of the Gospel records of the resurrection will readily detect many marks of the eye witness.

Some years ago when lecturing at an American university, a gentleman was introduced to me as being a skeptic. I asked him, “What line of study are you pursuing?” He replied that he was pursuing a post graduate course in history with a view to a professorship in history. I said, “Then you know that the account of an eye witness differs in marked respects from the account of one who is simply telling what he has heard from others?” “Yes,” he replied. I next asked, “Have you carefully read the four Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Christ?” He replied, “I have.” “Tell me, have you not noticed clear indications that they were derived from eye witnesses?” “Yes.” he replied, “I have been greatly struck by this in reading the accounts.” Any one who carefully and intelligently reads them will be struck with the same fact.

3. The third thing that we notice about these Gospel narratives is their naturalness, straightforwardness, artlessness and simplicity. The accounts, it is true, have to do with the supernatural, but the accounts themselves are most natural. There is a remarkable absence of all attempt at coloring and effect. There is nothing but the simple, straightforward telling of facts as they actually occurred. It frequently happens that when a witness is on the witness stand, the story he tells is so artless, so straightforward, so natural, there is such an entire absence of any attempt at coloring or effect that his testimony bears weight independently of anything we may know of the character or previous history of the witness.

As we listen to his story, we say to ourselves, “This man is telling the truth.” The weight of this kind of evidence is greatly increased and reaches practical certainty when we have several independent witnesses of this sort, all bearing testimony to the same essential facts, but with varieties of detail, one omitting what another tells, and the third unconsciously reconciling apparent discrepancies between the two. This is the precise case with the four Gospel narratives of the resurrection of Christ. The Gospel writers do not seem to have reflected at all upon the meaning or bearing of many of the facts which they relate. They simply tell right out what they saw in all simplicity and straightforwardness, leaving the philosophizing to others.

Dr. William Furness, the great Unitarian scholar and critic, who certainly was not over-much disposed in favor of the supernatural, says, “Nothing can exceed in artlessness and simplicity’ the four accounts of the first appearance of Jesus after His crucifixion. If these qualities are not discernible here, we must despair of ever being able to discern them anywhere.”

Suppose we should find four accounts of the battle of Monmouth. Suppose, furthermore, that nothing decisive was known as to the authorship of these four accounts, but, when we laid them side by side, we found that they were manifestly independent accounts. We found, furthermore, striking indications that they were from eye witnesses. We found them all marked by that artlessness, straightforwardness and simplicity that always carries conviction; we found that, while apparently disagreeing in minor details, they agreed substantially in their account of the battle — even though we had no knowledge of the authorship or date of these accounts, would we not, in the absence of any other accounts, say, “Here is a true account of the battle of Monmouth?” Now this is exactly the case with the four Gospel narratives. Manifestly separate and independent from one another, bearing the clear marks of having been derived from eye witnesses, characterized by an unparalleled artlessness, simplicity and straightforwardness, apparently disagreeing in minor details, but in perfect agreement as to the great central facts related. If we are fair and honest, if we follow the canons of evidence followed in court, if we follow any sound and sane law of literary and historical criticism, are we not logically driven to say, “Here is a true account of the resurrection of Jesus.” Here again we might rest our case and call the resurrection of Jesus from the dead proven, but we go on still further:

4. The next thing we notice is the unintentional evidence of words, phrases, and accidental
details.

It oftentimes happens that when a witness is on the stand, the unintentional evidence that he bears by words and phrases which he uses, and by accidental details which he introduces, is more convincing than his direct testimony, because it is not the testimony of the witness, but a testimony of the truth to itself. The Gospel accounts abound in evidence of this sort. Take, as the first instance, the fact that in all the Gospel records of the resurrection, we are given to understand that Jesus was not at first recognized by His disciples when He appeared to them after His resurrection, e.g., Luke 24:16; John 21:4. We are not told why this was so, but if we will think awhile over it, we will soon discover why it was so. But the Gospel narratives simply record the fact without attempting to explain it. If the stories were fictitious, they certainly would never have been made up in this way, for the writer would have seen at once the objection that would arise in the minds of those who did not wish to believe in His resurrection, that is, that it was not really Jesus Whom the disciples saw. Why, then, is the story told in this way? For the self-evident reason that the evangelists were not making up a story for effect, but simply recording events precisely as they occurred. This is the way in which it occurred, therefore this is the way in which they told it. It is not a fabrication of imaginary incidents, but an exact record of facts carefully observed and accurately recorded.

Take a second instance: In all the Gospel records of the appearances of Jesus after His resurrection, there is not a single recorded appearance to an enemy or opponent of Christ. All His appearances were to those who were already believers. Why this was so we can easily see by a little thought, but nowhere in the Gospels are we told why it was so. If the stories had been fabricated, they certainly would never have been made up in this way. If the Gospels were, as some would have us believe, fabrications constructed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred years after the alleged events recorded, when all the actors were dead and gone and no one could gainsay any lies told, Jesus would have been represented as appearing to Caiaphas, and Annas, and Pilate, and Herod, and confounding them by His re-appearance from the dead. But there is no suggestion even of anything of this kind in the Gospel stories. Every appearance is to one who is already a believer. Why is this so? For the self-evident reason that this was the way that things occurred, and the Gospel narratives are not concerned with producing a story for effect, but simply with recording events precisely as they occurred and as they were observed.

We find still another instance in the fact that the recorded appearances of Jesus after His resurrection were only occasional. He would appear in the midst of His disciples and disappear, and not be seen again perhaps for several days. Why this was so, we can easily think out for ourselves — He was evidently seeking to wean His disciples from their old-time communion with Him in the body, and to prepare them for the communion with Himself in the Spirit that was to follow in the days that were to come.

We are not, however, told this in the Gospel narratives. We are left to discover it for ourselves, and this is all the more significant for that reason. It is doubtful if the disciples themselves realized the meaning of the facts. If they had been making up the story to produce effect, they would have represented Jesus as being with them constantly, as living with them, eating and drinking with them, day after day. Why then is the story told as recorded in the four Gospels? Because this is the way in which it had all occurred. The Gospel writers are simply concerned with giving the exact representation of the facts as witnessed by themselves and others.

We find another very striking instance in what is recorded concerning the words of Jesus to Mary at their first meeting. (John 20:17). Jesus is recorded as saying to Mary, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” We are not told why Jesus said this to Mary. We are left to discover the reason for it if we can, and the commentators have had a great deal of trouble in discovering it. Their explanations vary widely one from another. I have a reason of my own which I have never seen in any commentary, but which I am persuaded is the true reason, but it would probably be difficult to persuade others that it was the true reason. Why then is this little utterance of Jesus put in the Gospel record without a word of explanation, and which it has taken eighteen centuries to explain, and which is not altogether satisfactorily explained yet? Certainly a writer making up a story would not put in a little detail like that without apparent meaning and without an attempt at an explanation of it. Stories that are made up are made up for a purpose; details that are inserted are inserted for a purpose, a purpose more or less evident, but eighteen centuries of study have not been able to find out the purpose why this was inserted.

Why then do we find it here? Because this is exactly what happened. This is what Jesus said; this is what Mary heard Jesus say; this is what Mary told, and therefore this is what John recorded. We cannot have a fiction here, but an accurate record of words spoken by Jesus after His resurrection.

We find still another instance in John 20:4-6: “So they ran both together; and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulcher. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth the linen Clothes lie.” This is all in striking keeping with what we know of the men from other sources. Mary, returning hurriedly from the tomb, bursts in upon the two disciples and cries, “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid Him.” John and Peter sprang to their feet and ran at the top of their speed to the tomb. John, the younger of the two disciples (it is all the more striking that the narrative does not tell us here that he was the younger of the two disciples), was fleeter of foot and outran Peter and reached the tomb first, but man of retiring and reverent disposition that he was (we are not told this here but we know it from a study of his personality as revealed elsewhere) he did not enter the tomb, but simply stooped down and looked in. Impetuous but older Peter comes stumbling on behind as fast as he can, but when once he reaches the tomb, he never waits a moment outside but plunges headlong in.

Is this made up, or, is it life? He was indeed a literary artist of consummate ability who had the skill to make this up if it did not occur just so. There is incidentally a touch of local coloring in the report. When one visits today the tomb which scholars now accept as the real burial place of Jesus, he will find himself unconsciously obliged to stoop down in order to look in.

Still another instance is found in John 21:7: “Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved saith to Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.” Here again we have the unmistakable marks of truth and life. The Apostles had gone at Jesus’ command into Galilee to meet Him there, but Jesus does nor at once appear. Simon Peter, with the fisherman’s passion still stirring in his bosom says, “I go a-fishing.” The others replied, “We also go with thee.” They fished all night, and, with characteristic fishermen’s luck, caught nothing. In the early dawn Jesus stands upon the shore, but the disciples did not recognize Him in the dim light. Jesus calls to them, “Children, have ye any meat?” And they answer, “No.” He bids them cast the net on the right side of the ship and they will find. When the cast was made, they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. In an instant, John, the man of quick spiritual perception, says, “It is the Lord.” No sooner does Peter, the man of impulsive action, hear it than he grasps his fisher’s coat, casts it about his naked form and throws himself overboard and strikes out for shore to reach his Lord. Is this made up, or, is it life? This is not fiction. If some unknown author of the fourth Gospel made this up, he is the master literary artist of the ages, and we should take down every other name from our literary pantheon and place him above them all.

We find a still more touching instance in John 20:15: “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Here is surely a touch that surpasses the art of any man of that day or any other day. Mary had gone into the city and notified John and Peter that she had found the sepulcher empty. They start on a run for the sepulcher. As Mary has already made the journey twice, they easily far outstrip her, but with heavy heart and slow and weary feet, she makes her way back to the tomb. Peter and John have long gone when she reaches it, broken-hearted, thinking that not only has her beloved Lord been slain, but that His tomb has been desecrated. She stands without weeping. There are two angels sitting in the tomb, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. But the grief-stricken woman has no eye for angels. They say unto her, “Woman, why weepest thou?” She replies, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” A rustle in the leaves at her back and she turns around to see who is coming. She sees Jesus standing there, but, blinded by tears and despair, she does not recognize her Lord. Jesus also says to her, “Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” She, supposing it to be the gardener who is talking to her, says, “Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him and I will take Him away.” Now remember who it is that makes the offer, and what she offers to do; a weak woman offers to carry a full grown man away. Of course, she could not do it, but how true to a woman’s love that always forgets its weakness and never stops at impossibilities. There is something to be done and she says, “I will do it,” “Tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Is this made up? Never! This is life; this is reality; this is truth.

We find another instance in Mark 16:7: “But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you,” What I would have you notice here are the two words, “and Peter.” Why “and Peter?” Was not Peter one of the disciples? Surely he was, the very head of the apostolic company. Why then, “and Peter?” No explanation is given in the text, but reflection shows it was the utterance of love toward the despondent, despairing disciple who had thrice denied his Lord. If the message had been simply to the disciples Peter would have said, “Yes, I was once a disciple, but I can no longer be counted such. I thrice denied my Lord on that awful night with oaths and curses. It does not mean me.” But our tender compassionate Lord through His angelic messenger sends the message, “Go tell His disciples, and whoever you tell, be sure you tell poor, weak, faltering, backslidden, broken-hearted Peter.” Is this made up, or is this a real picture of our Lord? I pity the man who is so dull that he can imagine this is fiction. Incidentally let it be noted that this is recorded only in the Gospel of Mark, which, as is well known, is Peter’s Gospel. As Peter dictated to Mark one day what he should record, with tearful eyes and grateful heart he would turn to him and say, “Mark, be sure you put that in, “Tell His disciples and Peter.”

Take still another instance in John 20:27-29: “Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Note here two things; the action of Thomas and the rebuke of Jesus. Each is too characteristic to be attributed to the art of some master of fiction. Thomas had not been with the disciples at the first appearance of our Lord. A week had passed by. Another Lord’s Day had come. This time Thomas makes sure of being present; if the Lord is to appear, he will be there. If he had been like some of our modern doubters, he would have taken pains to be away, but, doubter though he was, he was an honest doubter and wanted to know. Suddenly Jesus stands in the midst. He says to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands, and reach thither thy hand; and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless but believing.” At last Thomas’ eyes are opened. His faith long dammed back bursts every barrier and sweeping onward carries Thomas to a higher height than any other disciple had as yet reached — exultingly and adoringly he cries, as he looks up into the face of Jesus, “My Lord and My God!” Then Jesus tenderly, but searchingly, rebukes him. “Thomas,” He says, “because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they [who are so eager to find and so quick to see, and so ready to accept the truth, that they do not wait for actual visible demonstration but are ready to take truth on sufficient testimony] that have not seen and yet have believed.” Is this made up, or is this life? Is it a record of facts as they occurred, or a fictitious production of some master artist?

Take still another instance: In John 21:15-17 we read: “So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep.” Note especially here the words, “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me?” Why did Jesus ask Peter three times, “Lovest thou Me?” And why was Peter grieved because Jesus did ask him three times? We are not told in the text, but, if we read it in the light of Peter’s thrice repeated denial of his Lord, we will understand it. As Peter had denied his Lord thrice, Jesus three times gave Peter an opportunity to reassert his love. But this, tender as it was, brings back to Peter that awful night when in the courtyard of Annas and Caiaphas, he thrice denied his Lord, and “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me.” Is this made up? Did the writer make it up with this fact in view? If he did, he surely would have mentioned it. It cannot have been made up. It is not fiction. It is simply reporting what actually occurred. The accurate truthfulness of the record comes out even more strikingly in the Greek than in the English version. Two different words are used for “love.” Jesus, in asking Peter, “Lovest thou Me?” uses a strong word denoting the higher form of love. Peter, replying, “Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,” uses a weaker word, but one denoting a more tender form of love. Jesus, the second time uses the stronger word, and the second time in his reply Peter uses the weaker word. In His third question, Jesus comes down to Peter’s level and uses the weaker word that Peter had used from the beginning. Then Peter replies, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee,” using the same weaker word. This cannot be fiction. It is accurately reported fact.

Take still another instance: In John 20:16 we read, “Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.” What a delicate touch of nature we have here! Mary is standing outside the tomb overcome with grief. She has not recognized her Lord, though He has spoken to her. She has mistaken Him for the gardener: She has said, “Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Then Jesus utters just one word. He says, “Mary.” As that name came trembling on the morning air, uttered with the old familiar tone, spoken as no one else had ever spoken it but He, in an instant her eyes were opened. She falls at His feet and tries to clasp them, and looks up into His face, and cries, “Rabboni, my Master.” Is this made up? Impossible! This is life. This is Jesus, and this is the woman who loved Him. No unknown author of the second, third, or fourth century, could have produced such a masterpiece as this. We stand here unquestionably face to face with reality, with life, with Jesus and Mary as they actually were.

One more important illustration: In John 20:7 we read, “And the napkin, that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.” How strange that such a little detail as this should be added to the story with absolutely no attempt at explaining. But how deeply significant this little unexplained detail is. Recall the circumstances. Jesus is dead. For three days and three nights his body is lying cold and silent in the sepulcher, as truly dead as any body was ever dead, but at last the appointed hour has come, the breath of God sweeps through the sleeping and silent clay, and in that supreme moment of His own earthly life, that supreme moment of human history, when Jesus rises triumphant over death and grave and Satan, there is no excitement upon His part, but with that same majestic self-composure and serenity that marked His whole career, that same Divine calm that He displayed upon storm-tossed Galilee, when His affrighted disciples shook Him from His slumbers and said, “Lord, carest thou not that we perish?” and He arose serenely on the deck of the tossing vessel and said to the wild, tempestuous waves and winds, “Be still,” and there was a great calm: so now again in this sublime, this awful moment, He does not excitedly tear the napkin from His face and fling it aside, but absolutely without human haste or flurry, or disorder, He unties it calmly from His head, rolls it up and lays it away in an orderly manner in a place by itself. Was that made up? Never! We do not behold here an exquisite masterpiece of the romancer’s art; we read here the simple narrative of a matchless detail in a unique life that was actually lived here upon earth, a life so beautiful that one cannot read it with an honest and open mind without feeling the tears coming into his eyes.

But someone will say, all these are little things. True, and it is from that very fact that they gain much of their significance. It is just in such little things that fiction would disclose itself. Fiction displays itself different from fact in the minute; in the great outstanding outlines you can make fiction look like truth, but when you come to examine it minutely and microscopically, you will soon detect that it is not reality but fabrication. But the more microscopically we examine the Gospel narratives, the more we become impressed with their truthfulness. There is an artlessness and naturalness and self-evident truthfulness in the narratives, down to the minutest detail, that surpasses all the possibilities of art.

The third line of proof that the statements contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ are exact statements of historic fact, is:

3. THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

There are certain proven and admitted facts that demand the resurrection of Christ to account for them.

1. Beyond a question, the foundation truth preached in the early years of the Church’s history was the resurrection. This was the one doctrine upon which the Apostles were ever ringing the changes. Whether Jesus did actually rise from the dead or not, it is certain that the one thing that the Apostles constantly proclaimed was that He had risen. Why should the Apostles use this as the very corner-stone of their creed, if not well attested and firmly believed?

But this is not all: They laid down their lives for this doctrine. Men never lay down their lives for a doctrine which they do not firmly believe. They stated that they had seen Jesus after His resurrection, and rather than give up their statement, they laid down their lives for it. Of course, men may die for error and often have, but it was for error that they firmly believed. In this case they would have known whether they had seen Jesus or not, and they would not merely have been dying for error but dying for a statement which they knew to be false. This is not only incredible but impossible. Furthermore, if the Apostles really firmly believed, as is admitted, that Jesus rose from the dead, they had some facts upon which they founded their belief. These would have been the facts that they would have related in recounting the story. They certainly would not have made up a story out of imaginary incidents when they had real facts upon which they founded their belief. But if the facts were as recounted in the Gospels, there is no possible escaping the conclusion that Jesus actually arose. Still further, if Jesus had not arisen, there would have been evidence that He had not. His enemies would have sought and found this evidence, but the Apostles went up and down the very city where He had been crucified and proclaimed right to the faces of His slayers that He had been raised and no one could produce evidence to the contrary. The very best they could do was to say the guards went to sleep and the disciples stole the body while the guards slept. Men who bear evidence of what happens while they are asleep are not usually regarded as credible witnesses. Further still, if the Apostles had stolen the body, they would have known it themselves and would not have been ready to die for what they knew to be a fraud.

2. Another known fact is the change in the day of rest. The early church came from among the Jews. From time immemorial the Jews had celebrated the seventh day of the week as their day of rest and worship, but we find the early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles, and also in early Christian writings, assembling on the first day of the week. Nothing is more difficult of accomplishment than the change in a holy day that has been celebrated for centuries and is one of the most cherished customs of the people. What is especially significant about the change is that it was changed by no express decree but by general consent. Something tremendous must have occurred that led to this change. The Apostles asserted that what had occurred on that day was the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and that is the most rational explanation. In fact it is the only reasonable explanation of the change.

3. But the most significant fact of all is the change in the disciples themselves, the moral transformation. At the time of the crucifixion of Christ, we find the whole apostolic company filled with blank and utter despair. We see Peter, the leader of the apostolic company, denying his Lord three times with oaths and cursings, but a few days later we see this same man, filled with a courage that nothing could shake. We see him standing before the council that had condemned Jesus to death and saying to them, “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand before you whole” (Acts 4:10).

A little further on when commanded by the council not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus, we hear Peter and John answering, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19,20).

A little later still after arrest and imprisonment, in peril of death, when sternly arraigned by the council, we hear Peter and the Apostles answering their demand that they should be silent regarding Jesus, with the words, “We ought to obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things” (Acts 5:29-32). Something tremendous must have occurred to account for such a radical and astounding moral transformation as this. Nothing short of the fact of the resurrection and of their having seen the risen Lord will explain it.

These unquestionable facts are so impressive and so conclusive that even infidel and Jewish scholars now admit that the Apostles believed that Jesus rose from the dead. Even Ferdinand Baur, father of the Tubigen School, admitted this. Even David Strauss, who wrote the most masterly “Life of Jesus” from the rationalistic standpoint that was ever written, said, “Only this much need be acknowledged that the Apostles firmly believed that Jesus had arisen.” Strauss evidently did not wish to admit any more than he had to but he felt compelled to admit this much. Schenkel went even further and said, “It is an indisputable fact that in the early morning of the first day of the week following the crucifixion, the grave of Jesus was found empty. It is a second fact that the disciples and-other members of the apostolic communion were convinced that Jesus was seen after the crucifixion.” These admissions are fatal to the rationalists who make them.

The question at once arises, “Whence these convictions and belief?” Renan attempted an answer by saying that “the passion of a hallucinated woman (Mary) gives to the world a resurrected God.” (Renan’s “Life of Jesus,” page 357). By this, Renan means that Mary was in love with Jesus; that after His crucifixion, brooding over it, in the passion of her love, she dreamed herself into a condition where she had a hallucination that she had seen Jesus risen from the dead. She reported her dream as a fact, and thus the passion of a hallucinated woman gave to the world a resurrected God. But the reply to all this is self-evident, namely, the passion of a hallucinated woman was not competent to this task. Remember the make-up of the apostolic company; in the apostolic company were a Matthew and a Thomas to be convinced, outside was a Saul of Tarsus to be converted.

The passion of a hallucinated woman will not convince a stubborn unbeliever like Thomas, nor a Jewish tax-gatherer like Matthew. Whoever heard of a taxgatherer, and most of all of a Jewish tax-gatherer, who could be imposed upon by the passion of a hallucinated woman? Neither will the passion of a hallucinated woman convince a fierce and conscientious enemy like Saul of Tarsus. We must look for some saner explanation than this. Strauss tried to account for it by inquiring whether the appearance might not have been visionary. Strauss has had, and still has, many followers in this theory. But to this we reply, first of all, there was no subjective starting point for such visions. The Apostles, so far from expecting to see the Lord, would scarcely believe their own eyes when they did see Him. Furthermore, whoever heard of eleven men having the same vision at the same time, to say nothing of five hundred men (1 Corinthians 15:6) having the same vision at the same time. Strauss demands of us that we give up one reasonable miracle and substitute five hundred impossible miracles in its place. Nothing can surpass the credulity of unbelief.

The third attempt at an explanation is that Jesus was not really dead when they took Him from the cross, that His friends worked over Him and brought Him back to life, and what was supposed to be the appearance of the raised Lord was the appearance of one who never had been really dead and was now merely resuscitated. This theory of Paulus has been brought forward and revamped by various rationalistic writers in our own time and seems to be a favorite theory of those who today would deny the reality of our Lord’s resurrection. To sustain this view, appeal has been made to the short time Jesus hung upon the cross and to the fact that history tells us of one in the time of Josephus taken down from the cross and nursed back to life. But to this we answer:

(1). Remember the events preceding the crucifixion; the agony in the garden of Gethsemane; the awful ordeal of the four trials; the scourging and the consequent physical condition in which all this left Jesus. Remember too the water and the blood that. poured from His pierced side.

(2). In the second place, we reply, His enemies would have taken, and did take, all necessary precautions against such a thing as this happening. (John 19:34).

(3). We reply, in the third place, if Jesus had been merely resuscitated, He would have been so weak, such an utter physical wreck, that His reappearance would have been measured at its real value, and the moral transformation in the disciples, for which we are trying to account, would still remain unaccounted for. The officer in the time of Josephus, who is cited in proof, though brought back to life, was an utter physical wreck.

(4). We reply in the fourth place, if brought back to life, the Apostles and friends of Jesus, who are the ones who are supposed to have brought Him back to life, would have known how they brought Him back to life, and that it was not a case of resurrection but of resuscitation, and the main fact to be accounted for, namely, the change in themselves would remain unaccounted for. The attempted explanation is an explanation that does not explain.

(5). In the fifth place, we reply, that the moral difficulty is the greatest of all, for if it was really a case of resuscitation, then Jesus tried to palm Himself off as one risen from the dead, when in reality He was nothing of the sort. In that case, He would be an arch-impostor, and the whole Christian system rests on a fraud as its ultimate foundation. Is it possible to believe that such a system of religion as that of Jesus Christ, embodying such exalted principles and precepts of truth, purity and love, “originated in a sincere heart is not cankered by fraud and trickery can believe Jesus to have been an impostor, and His religion to have been founded upon fraud. A leader of the rationalistic forces in England has recently tried to prove the theory that Jesus was only apparently dead by appealing to the fact that when the side of Jesus was pierced blood came forth and asks, “Can a dead man bleed?” To this the sufficient reply is that when a man dies of What is called in popular language, a broken heart, the blood escapes into the pericardium, and after standing there for a short time it separates into serum (the water) and clot (the red corpuscles, blood), and thus if a man were dead, if his side were pierced by a spear, and the point of the spear entered the pericardium, “blood and water” would flow out just as the record states it did, and what is brought forth as a proof that Jesus was not really dead, is in reality a proof that He was, and an illustration of the minute accuracy of the story. It could not have been made up in this way, if it were not actual fact.

We have eliminated all other possible suppositions. We have but one left, namely, Jesus really was raised from the dead the third day as recorded in the four Gospels. The desperate straits to which those who attempt to deny it are driven are themselves proof of the fact. We have then several independent lines of argument pointing decisively and conclusively to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Some of them taken separately prove the fact, but taken together they constitute an argument that makes doubt of the resurrection of Christ impossible to the candid mind. Of course, if one is determined not to believe, no amount of proof will convince him. Such a man must be left to his own deliberate choice of error and falsehood; but any man who really desires to know the truth and is willing to obey it at any cost must accept the resurrection of Christ as an historically proven fact.

A brilliant lawyer in New York City some time ago spoke to a prominent minister of that city asking him if he really believed that Christ rose from the dead. The minister replied that he did, and asked the privilege of presenting the proof to the lawyer. The lawyer took the material offered in proof away and studied it. He returned to the minister, and said, “I am convinced that Jesus really did rise from the dead. But,” he then added, “I am no nearer being a Christian than I was before. I thought that the difficulty was with my head. I find that it is really with my heart.”

There is really but one weighty objection to the doctrine that Jesus arose from the dead, and that is, “There is no conclusive evidence that any other ever arose.” To this a sufficient answer would be, even if it were certain that no other ever arose, it would not at all prove that Jesus did not arise, for the life of Jesus was unique, His nature was unique, His character was unique, His mission was unique, His history was unique, and it is not to be wondered at, but rather to be expected, that the issue of such a life should also be unique. However, all this objection is simply David Hume’s exploded argument against the possibility of the miraculous revamped. According to this argument, no amount of evidence can prove a miracle, because miracles are contrary to all experience. But are miracles contrary to all experience? To start out by saying that they are is to beg the very question at issue. They may be outside of your experience and mine, they may be outside the experience of this entire generation, but your experience and mine and the experience of this entire generation is not “all experience.” Every student of geology and astronomy knows that things have occurred in the past which are entirely outside of the experience of the present generation. Things have occurred within the last ten years that are entirely outside of the experience of the fifty years preceding it. True science does not start with an a priori hypothesis that certain things are impossible, but simply examines the evidence to find out what has actually occurred. It does not twist its observed facts to make them accord with a priori theories, but seeks to make its theories accord with the facts as observed. To say that miracles are impossible, and that no amount of evidence can prove a miracle, is to be supremely unscientific. Within the past few years, in the domain of chemistry for example, discoveries have been made regarding radium which seemed to run counter to all previous observations regarding chemical elements and to well established chemical theories. But the scientist has not therefore said that these discoveries about radium cannot be true; he has rather gone to work to find out where the trouble was in his previous theories. The observed and recorded facts in the case before us prove to a demonstration that Jesus rose from the dead, and true science must accept this conclusion and conform its theories to this observed fact. The fact of the actual and literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead cannot be denied by any man who Will study the evidence in the case with a candid desire to find what the fact is, and not merely to support an a priori theory.
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In false desperation Jews

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Jews and Messianic Jews in desperation are falsely trying to maintain their own Hebrew religious identity and to falsely reject a Christian version of it..  The New Testament itself now had  castigated the Jewish people and Israel and has minimized their presence in the promised land, and  has specifically said that they are no longer God’s Chosen People.  https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/desolate/

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1st John 2:22-23, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”

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The Bible is God’s Word. The Bible irrefutably teaches that anyone, whether it be Jew or Gentile, who denies that Jesus is the Christ, is a LIAR. That is what the Bible says.

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1st John 2:23 says that anyone who denies Jesus has also denied God the Father. Most Jews today, who are followers of Judaism, claim to believe in the God of Moses; but the Bible calls them antichrists and condemns them to spend eternity in Hell. I didn’t say that, 2nd Thessalonians 1:8-9 does… “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”

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   “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” —Acts 4:10-12   “

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..and there is no God  else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.  Look unto me, and be ye saved,  all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” -Isaiah  45:21-22

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“Jesus saith unto him, I  am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  -John 14:6

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“And he is the  propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”  -1st John 2:2

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Judaism DENIES that Jesus is the Messiah at  all.  Judaism DENIES the deity of Christ.  Judaism doesn’t even teach  that their false messiah will be deity.  Clearly, JUDAISM is NOT based upon  the Word of God. The Bible is VERY  CLEAR that Jesus is in FACT the Messiah of the Jewish people.  Here is  divine Scripture to PROVE it…

“The woman saith unto him,  I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will  tell us all things.  Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.”  -John 4:25-26

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Did you read that?   Jesus affirmed to the woman at the well that He was indeed the Messiah.   Judaism does NOT believe the Bible.  Judaism is therefore of the Devil. 

Every human being who refuses to obey the Gospel will be cast into the Lake of Fire forever. Both Jews and Judaizers claim to worship God; but the Bible says that anyone who denies Jesus Christ has also denied the Father. Jews who claim to love and worship God the Father, while rejecting God the Son, are deceived. God is angry with them for rejecting His Son (John 3:36).   Messianic Jews will also go to hell cause they do not obey the Gospel of Jesus but teach a false, distorted  gospel of Jesus Christ, rather the old Judaic gospel.  Note that  we are saved solely by Christ’s righteousness, which is imputed to us by faith alone. A man’s faith is COUNTED for righteousness. We cannot be saved by our own self-righteousness; but rather, by God’s righteousness which is in His Son, Jesus. Romans 10:3-4, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” What will you do with Jesus my friend and his name as well..? Will you be offended by him and his name or honour them… “Neither  is there salvation in any other:  for there is none other name  under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” -Acts 4:12

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Jesus Christ was very center of the one and only religion of the Bible, both Old Testament and New. The religion of salvation by Faith and not by one’s works. God has but one plan of salvation for all mankind whether Jew or Gentile. Both Jews and Gentiles have one Messiah, Jesus Christ. Both have their sins forgiven only by His blood, the “blood of the Lamb.” Both are saved by grace, as the apostle Peter told the Christians when he said “But we believe that through the grace …of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” Acts 15:ll Both will stand before the throne of God together condemned or redeemed. It may seem strange then, that Jesus was constantly even today opposed by the religious Jews, was being accused of breaking the Jewish law, of undercutting their entire religious structure, and of trying to deceive the Jewish nation but the false Jewish way of life, their own religion of Salvation was at stake. Jesus on earth now did not enjoy a life of peace and tranquillity. The Jewish religious leaders, who should have been the spiritual eyes of the nation, falsely harassed Jesus throughout His earthly ministry. And wrongfully do so today as well. The religious controversy between Jesus and the Jews over a walk of faith was not only one in the drama of Jewish history. There has been a religious controversy throughout and the principle actors have been the self proclaimed religious persons like Cain who also had wanted to style his own religion, offering the sacrifices of his choice. He even ended up murdering his brother, who chose to be loyal to God and follow the sole instructions God had given. The Jews next even killed their God sent prophets and even Jesus Christ to keep their own false distorted religion of Judaism next too. Will we too now worship God as He has asked us, and remain loyal to the principles of Faith in Him? Or will we worship Him after the manner of our own choosing, after the traditions of men, all inspired by the rebel angel, Satan. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world,, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8

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Many in the Messianic Jewish community tend to spend falsely an inordinate amount of time arguing with the Christian community over doctrines, traditions, and ideas but they are not so quick to create such heated disputes with the unbelieving Jews . The are many many  major wrong approaches by the   Messianic Jewish movement.  One of the dangers in the national and international scene is a feeling they are always right, superiors. When a group has the attitude  of superiority,  they quickly do alienate many others. We all have much to learn from one another. God can unify and blend us without any group or individual controlling and manipulating others. Another   great  problem facing Messianic Judaism is  the desire for   control, they are wrongfully control freaks.. In Messianic Jewish literature and many  have noticed one consistent trend: authors intensely try to justify Messianic Judaism while heaping bitterly numerous criticisms on Christianity . Now it comes as a surprise, again, that Messianic Jews criticize Christianity even more harshly than Judaism, which rejects Jesus as the Messiah and hates Him.  It appears that Messianic Jews are as antagonistic to Christianity as the traditional Jews are. It brings to mind the words of Paul ,” You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?   If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Messianic Judaism has become so preoccupied with justifying its existence that it is now obsessed with taking over from both religions that of the Jews and the Christians, but especially Christianity. This is a dangerous road  that removes the focus of Messianic Jews from their relationships with God and places their focus on worldly endeavours which is the reason they are going to hell still, Like Apostle Judas. 

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Messianic Jews are liars, trouble makers, chrisrian haters, unchristian, s weird or “off the mark” as Messianic Judaism is a “doctrine of demons and Torah observance itself is a “doctrine of demons. And they misquote the Bible to justify theur lies. Yahweh – God gave us a new Covenant through Jesus, and abondoned the Torah! The Law and also the Jewish temple was abolished for all. Christians no longer walk in Torah, they are not keeping the Biblical feasts, or the seventh day Sabbath thus. No matter who instituted Sunday worship, After Christs death both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles alike, regularly attended church for worship on Sunday. The Jewish Messiah’s given name  at Birth also was Jesus Christ, a Greek name and not a Hebrew name

If we also do still want the most accurate picture of God, we don’t need to look any further than Jesus Christ. In Jesus we meet God as God really is. “He who has seen me,” Jesus said, “has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

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“For in   Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6)   “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two….Consequently, you (Gentiles) are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household….a holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:14-21)   “In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Messiah, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Messiah. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross…. Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Messiah. Since you died with Messiah to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: `Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Since, then, you have been raised with Messiah, set your hearts on things above, where Messiah is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Messiah is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 2:11-3:14)

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Abraham now also  kept all of God’s commands (Gen. 26:5), but this does not mean that he kept all the annual festivals, sacrificed his firstborn animals, or did any of the other laws that Moses gave. This verse tells us that Abraham was obedient to all the laws that applied to him, but it doesn’t tell us which laws applied

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The Bible refers to the Ten Commandments as a group in only three places. They are called the covenant that God made with his people through Moses (Ex. 34:28 and Deut. 4:13)—and this covenant is now obsolete (Heb. 8:13). In 2 Cor. 3. Apostle Paul talks about tablets of stone when Moses’ face was shining in glory (vs. 3, 7). Clearly, Paul is talking about the Ten Commandments. Notice what he says: They are the letter that kills, a ministry of death and condemnation, which came in glory but its glory is now fading away (vs. 6-11). The new covenant, in contrast, is a ministry that brings life, is much more glorious, and is a ministry that does not fade away. Apostle Paul did not praise or demand the Ten Commandments as any part of the Christian way of life. Rather, he pointed out ways in which the gospel of Jesus Christ is different from the Ten Commandments. They the Ten Commandments were part of a ministry that was fading away. Since Paul says that the ministry of the letter is fading, it should be no surprise if we find that one of the Ten the Sabbath Observation was a temporary command. Something about those stone tablets is fading away; we cannot assume that all Ten Commandments are eternal. God gave the Sabbath to the Israelites as a sign between God and the Israelites (Ex. 31:17). The Sabbath made the Israelites different from other nations—but Paul says that the laws that separated Jews and Gentiles have been done away by the cross of Christ (Eph. 2:11-18).  Apostle Paul told the Galatians that the promises of salvation were given to Abraham (Gal. 3:16). Then a law was added 430 years later—meaning all the laws added through Moses (v. 17). This law was temporary, in effect only until “the Seed” (Christ) had come (v. 19). This law was put into effect until Christ, but now that he has come, we are not under the supervision of that law (vs. 24-25). The New Testament message is consistent: the old covenant, the laws of Moses, are obsolete.   Jesus  never commands anyone to keep the Sabbath, nor praises anyone for it. Rather, he constantly criticized people who had rules about what could or could not be done on the Sabbath. He always taught more freedom, never any restrictions. Although he told people to be very strict about some laws (Matt. 5:21, 28, etc.), he was always liberal about the Sabbath. Jesus said that daily chores could be done on the Sabbath (Luke 13:15). Even hard labor could be done in an emergency (Luke 14:5). He told a healed man to carry his sleeping mat, even though there was no hurry (John 5:8). He even used the word “work” to describe his activity (v. 17). Many Christians follow this example. They remember that Jesus consistently criticized the Sabbath rules of the Pharisees, and that he treated it as a ritual law. Jesus openly criticized people who taught law  requirements that God did not have: “You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them” (Luke 11:46). When we teach any requirements, we all need to be very honest.

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God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, but that does not mean that he required any people to rest on it. Also there is no evidence in the Bible that God commanded the Sabbath before the days of Moses and the rules for observations’ of the Sabbath were applicable only to the Jews and no one else. The New testament has no demand for Sabbath observations. So if God does not require the Sabbath, then it would be wrong for anyone to put this unnecessary burden on anyone. When the effect on our lives is so great, we all do even now need to make sure that we have a clear direct command from God, in the New testament not merely a questionable inference. Genesis itself does not command the Sabbath, never mentions the word, and never pictures anyone as keeping it.   Col. 2:16-17. He says, “Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Here, Paul groups the weekly Sabbath with the annual festivals, the monthly rituals, and eating and drinking restrictions of the now obsoleted Judaism. God accepts us solely on the basis of Christ, not on whether we keep a certain day of the week. The Sabbath keeping (or any other Judaic distinctive practice) will  deceive a person and subtly reduce the importance of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that the only reason that we please God is because of Jesus Christ: God accepts us because of Jesus Christ, not because of anything that we do. It is by grace, not works. We are to trust in Christ alone for our salvation and not in any of our good acts, works-

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“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7).

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Revelation says that the end-time people of God will be keeping God’s commandments (Rev. 12:17). This verse does not say which commandments will be kept . It is false,  wrong to assume that it means also all of  the Ten Commandments even, when God has actually given many more commandments than that. Many revised and added ones too in the New testament..

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All Jewish believers are now the same as Gentile believers in terms of what God requires of them. Both have to come under the New Covenant, The New testament.  This is the covenant they both how have to operate under. Jesus said that all partake of the Lord’s Supper receive the sign of the “New Covenant in my blood which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20) and that Paul was to the Corinthians a minister of the New Covenant to them, not of the letter that kills, but of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:6). Both Jewish and Gentile believers in Messiah participate in the SAME NEW COVENANT, and are therefore bound by the SAME principles of conduct, the moral teachings of God’s Law, but not the ceremonial laws. Let’s make it crystal clear that “by observing the Law no one will be justified” and “if righteousness could be gained through the Law, Messiah died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:16 & 21).  Just as Abraham was justified by faith, so also through faith in Jesus we can be justified. “But now a righteousness from God, apart from Law, has been made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify” (Romans 3:21). Observing the Law will save absolutely no one. But what about after salvation? We know we are saved apart from the Law, but don’t we follow the Law now out of obedience and love?

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Believers do not in any way have an obligation to practice the Ceremonial Law today. It has been fulfilled in Messiah and was but a typological shadow of the greater reality to come. What do I mean by the Ceremonial Law? Simply the Laws associated with the Levitical system of purification and atonement. These are clearly fulfilled in Messiah. this is the whole teaching of the book of Hebrews. This Old Testament ceremonial Law is “obsolete,” says Hebrews 8:13, and will “soon disappear.” The Levitical rites and practices are obsolete and never again to be re-instituted. They are “spiritual dinosaurs” belonging to another age and priesthood now past. Never again will God’s people go back to that which was “only a shadow of the good things that are coming — not the realities themselves” (Hebrews 10:1).

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So the Levitical laws of atonement and purification are no longer to be observed by believers. We have them fulfilled in Messiah, who has come in the new and superior “Order of Melchizedek” according to Psalm 110:4 and Hebrews 7:11-18.

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What do those Levitical rites include? The sacrifices for sin found in Leviticus chapters 1-8 and 16, the rules for the Levitical priesthood found in chapters 9-10, which has been fulfilled and replaced with the Melchizedek priesthood, and the Laws of ritual purity, including the laws of clean and unclean animals, childbirth, mildew, skin diseases, and discharges (Leviticus chapters 11-15). We can’t follow these laws since they are associated with a priesthood and Temple no longer in existence. The laws against eating blood were connected with the Levitical sacrificial system, according to chapter 17. There are, however, some “moral” laws in Leviticus found in chapters 18-20, but mixed in with them are some laws which only make sense within the context of the Temple priesthood and some which only make sense for the particular historical, cultural and agricultural setting of the Mosaic economy. Great care must be taken when seeking to apply the principles of these laws today!

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Are the Levitical Kosher laws really obsolete? Has God done away with them? Without a doubt, yes. There are several passages which could be cited, but let’s just consider one. With laser-beam clarity Paul states: “All food is Kosher (clean)” (Romans 14:20).  Paul, addressing a congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers, says even what the Geneiles eat is now clean.

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New Covenant Kosher is both easier and harder than Levitical kosher. The intent of the heart comes into play. Though all food is Kosher, we must take into account what may stumble another (Romans 14:21) and remember that in all we do, including what we eat, it must be done to the glory of Messiah (1 Corinthians 10:31). This is our kashrut. Certainly we are free to keep any kind of dietary laws we want, according to what may help further our witness and what suits our tastes, but there is no requirement for anyone to keep Levitical Kosher. It is obsolete as far as obeying God is concerned.

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Is the whole Law of Moses irrelevant to our practice today? Of course not. On the positive side, all the moral commandments of the Torah are still relevant for us. God’s nature does not change and His moral laws are still our guide today. We are to keep the heart of the Law. We are to “love the LORD your God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” We have the Ten Commandments, and beyond them we have examples, explanations, and applications of how they were to be obeyed.

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Also, the civil laws of the Bible give us insight into how we are to govern ourselves, but again, they must be understood in their historical context and how they too point to Messiah. The civil penalty of “hanging on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23) was an application of the curse. Jesus was hung on the tree to remove the curse and achieve our blessing (Galatians 3:13-14). Even the civil law had spiritual implications and we must interpret and apply it accordingly. All of the Law of Moses is relevant for all believers today, but it must be understood in terms of the completed revelation of God found in the New Covenant scriptures and the completed redemption the Messiah Jesus Christ has brought.

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The New testament is clearly seen as Jesus   instituting a new ethic at odds with that of the Old Testament  Hebrew Bible. The  New Testament, portrays Judaism as it’s  best as  a preparation for the full and final truth of the Christian Gospel. The New testament clearly however, is pro-Jewish without being pro-Judaism and declares Judaism dead, obsolete, as well as their related laws.. The Jews, by killing their own messiah, had also now become the permanent enemies of God, and were to be punished accordingly throughout the generations by their own choice too. As the Jewish crowd cries to Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect, in the Gospel according to Matthew, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” In this Christian understanding, what was entailed for the Jews was not only the loss of God’s favour—and thus next we have rightfully  the elevation of a new chosen people, represented by the Church—and  also the full  destruction of the Jewish  Temple in Jerusalem in 70 ad and the Jews  full exile from their past  promised land and they are to be “as wanderers they ought to remain upon the earth, until their countenance be filled with shame and repentance.” The conflict between  the Jews and God also will not be settled until God , Jesus Christ comes back to earth  as promised in Scripture.”   As Paul insists in the New Testament, the Jews have not been utterly rejected by God but remain “beloved because of the patriarchs [Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob]. For the gift and the call of God are irrevocable.” “A hardening has come upon Israel,” the apostle Paul  writes,“until the full number of the Gentiles comes in [to the truth of Christianity], and next thus all of the Spiritual  Israel of both Jews and gentiles are saved.   Contrary to the Jewish expectation the scope of Christ’s vicarious human life extends to all who have ever lived. Likewise, the Bible declares that Jesus died for everyone—and that his death applies to everyone now. Relevant passages include:

John 12:32: “I [Jesus], when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” 2 Corinthians 5:14: “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.” Colossians 1:19-20: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” 1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” 1 Timothy 4:9-10: “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance…that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.” Hebrews 2:9: “We see Jesus, who…suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” 1 John 2:2: “[Jesus is] the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” See also John 1:29; 3:17; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Titus 2:11; and 1 John 4:14. These passages make it plain that Jesus died for all humanity.

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SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD, STOP WORSHIPING AND SERVING THE ENSLAVING BIBLE EARTHLY JERUSALEM VISIBLE THINGS OF JEWISH TRADITION OF THE MIDDLE EAST IN YOUR CARNAL KNOWLEDGE PRESENTED BY THE OLD COVENANT BIBLE FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION TO THIS DAY of 2014. THE EARTHLY JERUSALEM VISIBLE HISTORICAL JEWISH TRADITIONAL VISIBLE THINGS RECORDED IN THE OLD COVENANT BIBLE FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION ARE MERE COPIES (IDOLS) AND SHADOWS OF THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM INVISIBLE THINGS REVEALED TO YOU BY GOD INTERPRETING THE VERY OLD COVENANT BIBLE, WORD BY WORD IN A NEW WAY IN HIS KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM; WHICH TRANSLATES THE OLD COVENANT BIBLE INTO A NEW COVENANT BIBLE THAT GIVES ETERNAL LIFE. THE BIBLE EARTHLY JERUSALEM HISTORICAL VISIBLE THINGS ARE IMPOSED BY GOD ON ALL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE PEOPLE WHO READ AND INTERPRET THE BIBLE IN THEIR OWN HUMAN KNOWLEDGE(S) UNTIL GOD SETS THEM, ONE BY ONE FREE BY INTERPRETING THE VERY OLD COVENANT BIBLE IN HIS OWN KNOWLEDGE. Col 3:1-13, Rom 12; 1-2. 2 CORINTH 3: 5-6….13-15, 2 Corinth 2: 7-8, 2 Corinth Chapters 4 & 5, 1 John 5: 7-8…12, Psalms 25: 12-14. USE KJV BIBLE.

THE BIBLE IS THE SAME PLACE OF BONDAGE AND DEATH FOR DISOBEDIENT SOULS TO GOD BY AN OLD COVENANT (FIGURATIVELY EGYPT OF THE PRESENT DAYS) AND IS THE SAME PROMISED PLACE OF LIBERTY AND INHERITANCE (FIGURATIVELY CANAAN OF OUR NOW DAYS) FOR OBEDIENT SOULS TO GOD BY THE NEW COVENANT FOR YOUR SOULS. 2 Corinth 3: 5-6, 7-12, 13-15.JAMES 1: 18-21, 1 John 2: 7-8. Gal 4: 21-28, Isaiah 45: 7-8, Isaiah 29: 11-24. Use KJV BIBLE.

Choose, therefore eternal life and not death for your soul. By doing this your soul will be given the revelation of the invisible things of Heavenly Jerusalem Kingdom/ city to translate your mind from serving and worshiping earthly Jerusalem visible things which are copies of the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things. 2 Corinth 3: 5-6..13-15, 2 Peter 1: 10-11, Rom 2: 28-29, Rom 12: 1-2, Isaiah 29:11-24. Use KJV Bible.

The Bible handwritten in letter in black and white if interpreted in human carnal knowledge(s) from Genesis to Revelation are made Old Covenant Bible ordinances of darkness but the very handwritten Bible read and interpreted for us by God from Genesis to Revelation in His own knowledge and wisdom become the promised New Covenant Bible that are UNDERSTOOD by only in chosen souls that have been given the ability to interpret the Bible by God in His own knowledge of His HOLY Spirit. The knowledge of God in chosen saints that substitutes the old covenant Bible historical earthly Jerusalem Jewish traditional visible things of the Middle East which are mere copies of the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things with REAL heavenly Jerusalem invisible things of the New Covenant Bible in pattern within the same Bible. 2 Corinth 3: 5-6…13-15, 1 John 2:7-8, Col 2: 10-23, Isaiah 29: 11-24, Isaiah 45: 7-8..12, John 1: 17-18, 1 John 5: 7-8…12, James 1: 18-21, Use KJV Bible

Therefore the same Bible carnal knowledge ordinances of darkness that keep souls in BLINDED BONDAGE by Earthly Jerusalem Kingdom / City visible things of Agar, the Egyptian and her carnal knowledge children, are the very old Covenant Bible ordinances that are read and interpreted in a new way in the knowledge and wisdom of God that transform the old covenant Bible ordinances of darkness into the New Covenant Bible ordinances. The Holy Spirit interpreted ordinances of light sets FREE the spiritual Israel born of knowledge and wisdom of God irrespective of color, religion, denominations, nationalities, sects etc. 1 John 2: 7-8, 2 Corinth 3: 5-6…13-15, Rom 2: 28-29, 2 Corinth 4

The Children born of the knowledge God through the promised New Covenant Bible called Sarah are set free from the BONDAGE of carnal knowledge children of Agar, the present city of earthly Jerusalem City / kingdom that interpret and explain the old covenant Bible to this day 2014 using the historical earthly Jerusalem physical visible copies and shadows recorded in Old covenant Bible which enslave carnal knowledge souls because they are mere copies and veils that prevent carnal knowledge souls not to understand the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things.. Hagar is present day Jerusalem City and her carnal knowledge children that enslave the spiritual Israel of God who are still carnal in understanding the Bible to this day of 2014 as is revealed in 2 Corinth 3: 5-6, Romans 2: 28-29 and Gal 4: 21-28.USE KJV Bible.

But Sarah is the heavenly Jerusalem New Covenant Bible that is taught by the Spirit of God that set her sons/ children from the Egypt of the present day of the Whole World where the Bible is taught in carnal human knowledge in churches and mosques etc., teaching in carnal knowledge the earthly Jerusalem copies and shadows against the teaching of the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things which actual abolish earthly Jerusalem visible things in whoever the Holy Spirit reveals the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things by the New Covenant Bible. Exodus 6: 1-6. So the same place of enslavement of THE OLD COVENANT BIBLE taught by human carnal knowledge(s); is the same place of setting souls free when God interprets the very Old Covenant Bible in His own knowledge which turns the old Covenant Bible into the promised NEW COVENANT BIBLE that enables redeemed souls to worship God in truth and in the knowledge of His Holy Spirit! Judges 6. USE KJV BIBLE.

Therefore the souls of carnal knowledge readers and interpreters of the Old Covenant Bible all over the world who teach historical earthly Jerusalem Jew tradition visible things recorded from in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, which are mere copies and shadows/ veils of the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things are still enslaved at the present earthly Jerusalem City / Kingdom. They worship, they pray, they serve, they sacrifice their souls to baal or earthly Jerusalem visible things. They offer, their offerings to copies and shadows of the heavenly Jerusalem city / kingdom invisible things including the invisible God. If this knowledge of differentiating the earthly Earthly Jerusalem visible things from the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things, then they are worshiping the god of this world unawares called Satan who overshadows the INVISIBLE GOD OF HEAVENLY JERUSALEM. 2 Corinth 4: 1-7…18, 2 Corinth 5: 1-17 note verses 16 and 17, 1 John 2: 7-8, 1 John 5: 7-8, John 1: 17-18. Col 3. Use KJV Bible.

Therefore in your soul stop worshiping and serving the earthly Jerusalem visible things which are mere copies and shadows of the REAL heavenly Jerusalem invisible things and serve/ worship the heavenly Jerusalem invisible things revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. 1 John 5: 7-8..12, John 1:1-12, 17-18. USE KJV Bible.

http://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx…

see also

https://mccainvrsobama.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/the-reality/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/new-testament-basis-for-the-restoration-of-the-nation-of-Israel/

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/keep-your-eyes-on-jesus-not-the-jewish-antichrist-yeshua/

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/the-sin-of-worshipping-the-land-of-israel-jews/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/yes-the-new-covenant-is-not-a-continuation-of-the-old-testament/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/so-what-reasons-do-you-have-to-support-the-jews-and-the-state-of-Israel/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/now-how-did-moses-abraham-the-great-jewish-patriarchs-next-make-it-to-heaven/

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/even-heaven-awaits-jewish-return-to-god-jesus-christ-and-rather-not-to-the-promised-earthly-land/

How to Pray So As to Get What You Ask

 

How to Pray So As to Get What You Ask by  R. A. Torrey .

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“The church was earnestly praying to God for him.” Acts 12:5

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“How to Pray So As to Get What You Ask.” I can think of nothing more important that I could tell you. Suppose it had been announced that I was to tell the business men of this city how they could go to any bank here and get all the financial accommodation they desired any day in the year, and suppose, also, that I knew that secret and could really tell it, do you think that the business men of this city would consider the information important? It would be difficult to think of anything that they would consider more important. But praying is going to the bank, going to the bank that has the largest capital of any bank in the universe, the Bank of Heaven, a bank whose capital is absolutely unlimited. And if I can show you this morning how you can go to the Bank of Heaven any day in the year, and any hour of the day or night, and get from that bank all that you desire, that will certainly be of incalculable importance.

Now, the Bible tells us that very thing. It tells us how we can go to the Bank of Heaven, how we can go to God in prayer any day of the year and any hour of the day or night, and get from God the very things that we ask. What the Bible teaches along this line has been put to the test of practical experiment by tens of thousands of people, and has been found in their own experience to be absolutely true. And that is what we are to discover from a study of God’s own Word.

In the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we have the record of a most remarkable prayer, remarkable because of what was asked for and remarkable because of the results of the asking. King Herod had killed James, the brother of John. This greatly “pleased the Jews,” so he proceeded further to arrest the leader of the whole apostolic company, the Apostle Peter, with the intention of killing him also. But the arrest was during Passover Week, the Holy Week of the Jews; and, while the Jews were perfectly willing to have Peter assassinated, eager to have him assassinated, they were not willing to have their Holy Week desecrated by his violent death. So Peter was cast into prison to be kept until the Passover week was over, and then to be executed. The Passover week was nearly over, it was the last night of the Passover week, and early the next morning Peter was to be taken out and beheaded.

There seemed to be little hope for Peter, indeed, no hope at all. He was in a secure dungeon, in an impregnable fortress, guarded by sixteen soldiers, and chained by each wrist to a soldier who slept on either side of him. There appeared to be no hope whatever for Peter. But the Christians in Jerusalem undertook to get Peter out of his perilous position, to completely deliver him. How did they go at it? Did they organize a mob and storm the castle? No, there was no hope whatever of success that way. The castle was impregnable against any mob, and, furthermore, it was garrisoned by trained Roman soldiers who would be more than a match for any mob. Did the Christians circulate a petition and get the names of the leading Christians in Jerusalem signed to it to present to Herod, asking that he would release Peter? No. That might have had weight, for the Christians in Jerusalem at that time were numbered by the thousands and among them were not a few influential persons, and a petition signed by so many people, and by some people of such weight, would have had influence with a wily politician such as Herod was. But the Christians did not attempt that method of deliverance. Did they take up a collection and gather a large amount of money from the believers in Jerusalem to bribe Herod to release Peter? Quite likely that might have proved successful, for Herod was open to that method of approachment. But they did not do that.

What did they do? They held a prayer meeting to pray Peter out of prison. Was anything apparently more futile and ridiculous ever undertaken by a company of fanatics? Praying a man so securely incarcerated, and so near his execution, out of prison? If the enemies of Peter and the church had known of that attempt they doubtless would have been greatly amused, and have laughed at the thought of these fanatical Christians praying Peter out of prison, and doubtless would have said to one another, “We’ll see what will become of the prayers of these fool Christians.”

But the attempt to pray Peter out of prison was entirely successful. Apparently Peter himself had no fears, but was calmly resting in God; for he was fast asleep on the very eve of his proposed execution. While Peter was sound asleep, guarded by the six teen soldiers, chained to a soldier sleeping on either side of him, suddenly there shone in the prison a light, a light from heaven; and “an angel of the Lord” could have been seen standing by Peter. The angel struck Peter on the side as he slept, and woke him, and said, “Quick, get up!” Instantly Peter’s chains fell from his hands and he arose to his feet. The angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and your sandals.” Peter did so, and then the angel said, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” Peter, dazed and wondering, thought he was dreaming; but he was wise enough to obey God even in his sleep and he went out and followed the angel, though he “thought he was seeing a vision.” The soldiers were all asleep, and, unhindered, the angel and Peter passed the first guard and the second guard and came to the strong iron gate that led into the city. Moved by the finger of God, the gate “opened for them by itself.” They went out and silently passed through one street.

Now Peter was safe, and the angel left him. Standing there in the cold night air, Peter came to himself, and realized that he was not dreaming, and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.” Stopping a few moments to reflect, he may have said to himself, “There is a prayer meeting going on. It must be at Mark’s mother’s house; I will go there.” And soon those who are praying are startled by a heavy pounding at the outside gate of Mark’s mother’s home. A little servant girl named Rhoda must have been kneeling among those praying. Instantly she sprang to her feet and rushed to the gate, “When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’“ “Oh, Rhoda, you are crazy,” cried the unbelieving company. “No,” Rhoda said, “I am not crazy. It is Peter. God has answered our prayers. I know his voice. I knew he would come and he is here.” Then they all cried, “It is not Peter, it is his angel.” But Peter kept on knocking, and they opened the door, and there stood Peter, the living evidence that God has answered their prayer.

Now, if we can find out how these people prayed, then we shall know just how we, too, can pray so as to get what we ask. In the fifth verse we are told exactly how they prayed. Let me read it to you. “The church was earnestly praying to God for him.” The whole secret of prevailing prayer, the prayer that gets what it asks, is found in four phrases in this brief description of their prayer. The first phrase is, “earnestly.” The second, “the Church.” The third, “to God.” The fourth, “for him.”

I. To God

 

Let us take up these four phrases and study them. We take up first the third phrase, for it is really the most important one, “to God.” The prayer that gets what it asks is the prayer that is to God. But someone will say, “Is not all prayer to God?” No. Comparatively few of the prayers that go up from this earth today are really to God. I sometimes think that not one prayer in a hundred is really “to God.” You ask, “What do you mean?” I mean exactly what I say, that not one prayer in a hundred is really to God. “Oh,” you say, “I know what you mean. You are talking about the prayers of the heathen to their idols and their false gods.” No, I mean the prayers of people who call themselves Christians. I do not think that one in a hundred of them is really unto God. “Oh,” you say, “I know what you mean. You are talking of the prayers of the Roman Catholics to the Virgin Mary and to the saints.” No, I mean the prayers of people who call themselves Protestants. I do not believe that one in a hundred of the prayers of Protestant believers is really to God. “What do you mean?” you ask. I mean exactly what I say.

Stop a moment and think. Is it not often the case, when men stand up to pray in public, or kneel down to pray in private, that they are thinking far more of what they are asking for than they are of the great God who made heaven and earth, and who has all power? Is it not often the case that in our prayers we are not thinking much of either what we are asking for or of Him from whom we are asking it, but, instead, our thoughts are wandering off everywhere? We take the name of God on our lips, but there is no real conscious approach to God in our hearts.

We are really taking the name of God in vain when we fancy we are praying to Him. If there is to be any power in our prayer, if our prayer is to get anything, the first thing to be sure of when we pray is that we really have come into the presence of God, and are really speaking to Him. We should never utter one syllable of prayer, either in public or in private, until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence of God and are actually praying to Him. Oh, let those two words, “to God,” “to God,” “to God,” sink deep into your heart; and from this time on never pray, never utter one syllable of prayer, until you are sure that you have come into the presence of God and are really talking to Him.

Some years ago in our church in Chicago, before we began the great Saturday night prayer meetings to pray for a world-wide revival, a little group of us used to meet every Saturday night for prayer, to pray for God’s blessing on tomorrow’s work. Never more than a handful of people came, but we had wonderful times of blessing. One night, after we had gathered together, I rose to open the meeting and said to those gathered there, “Now we are going to kneel in prayer and every one of you feel at perfect liberty to ask for what God puts into your heart to ask for; but be sure that you do not utter a word of prayer until you have really come into the presence of God, and know that you are talking to Him.” Then we knelt in prayer. A friend of mine, a business man, had come in just before I said that. One day the following week I met him and he said to me, “Mr. Torrey, I ought to be ashamed to confess it, but do you know that that thought you threw out last Saturday night just before we knelt in prayer, that not one of us should utter a syllable of prayer until we had really come into the presence of God and knew that we were talking to Him, was an entirely new thought to me and it has transformed my prayer life?” I could easily understand that, for I can remember when that thought transformed my prayer life. I was brought up to pray. I was taught to pray so early in life that I have not the slightest recollection of who taught me to pray. I have no doubt it was my mother, but I have no recollection of it. In my earliest days the habit of prayer was so thoroughly ingrained into me that there has never been a single night of my life as far back as my memory goes, that I have not prayed; with the exception of one night when I was carried home unconscious and did not regain consciousness until the next morning.

Even when I had wandered far from God, and had definitely decided that I would not accept Jesus Christ, I still prayed every night. Even when I had come to a place where I doubted that the Bible was the Word of God, and that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and even doubted that there was a personal God, nevertheless, I prayed every night. I am glad that I was brought up that way, and that the habit of prayer was so instilled into me that it became permanent, for it was through that habit that I came back out of the darkness of agnosticism into the clear light of an intelligent faith in God and His Word. Nevertheless, prayer was largely a mere matter of form. There was little real thought of God, and no real approach to God. And even after I was converted, yes, even after I had entered the ministry, prayer was largely a matter of form. But the day came when I realized what real prayer meant, realized that prayer was having an audience with God, actually coming into the presence of God and asking and getting things from Him. And the realization of that fact transformed my prayer life. Before that, prayer had been a mere duty, and sometimes a very irksome duty, but from that time on prayer has been not merely a duty but a privilege, one of the most highly esteemed privileges of life. Before that, the thought I had was, “How much time must I spend in prayer?” The thought that now possesses me is, “How much time may I spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and duties of life?”

Suppose some Englishman were summoned to Buckingham Palace to meet King George. He answers the summons and is waiting in the outer room to be ushered into the presence of the King. What do you think that man would say to himself while he waited to be brought into the presence of the King? Do you think he would say, “I wonder how much time I have to spend with the King?” No, indeed; he would think, “I wonder how much time the King will give me.” But prayer is having an audience with the King of kings, that eternal, omnipotent King, in comparison with, all earthly kings are as nothing; and would any intelligent person who realizes that fact ever ask himself, “How much time must I spend in prayer?” No, our thought will be, “How much time may I spend in prayer, how much time will the King give me?” So let these two words, “to God,” sink deep into your heart and govern your prayer life from this day on. Whenever you kneel in prayer, or stand in prayer, whether it be in public or in private, be absolutely sure before you utter a syllable of prayer that you have actually come into the presence of God and are really speaking to Him. Oh, it is a wondrous secret.

But at this point a question arises. How can we come into the presence of God, and how can we be sure that we have come into the presence of God, and that we are really talking to Him? Some years ago I was speaking on this verse of Scripture in Chicago, and at the close of the address a very intelligent Christian woman, one of the most intelligent and deeply spiritual women I ever knew, came to me and said, “Mr. Torrey, I like that thought of ‘to God,’ but how can we come into the presence of God and how can we be absolutely sure that we have come into the presence of God, and that we are really talking to Him?” It was a wise question and a question of great importance; and it is clearly answered in the Word of God. There are two parts to the answer.

1. You will find the first part of the answer in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter ten, verse nineteen, “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.” That is the first part of the answer. We come into the presence of God “by the blood of Jesus”; and we can come into the presence of God in no other way. Just what does that mean? It means this: You and I are sinners, the best of us are great sinners, and God is infinitely holy, so holy that even the seraphim, those wonderful “burning ones” (for that is what seraphim means, burning ones), burning in their own intense holiness, must veil their faces and their feet in His presence (Isaiah 6:2). But our sins have been laid on another; they were laid on the Lord Jesus when He died on the cross of Calvary and made a perfect atonement for our sins. When He died there He took our place, the place of rejection by God, the place of the “curse,” and the moment we accept Him and believe God’s testimony concerning His blood, that by His shed blood He made perfect atonement for our sin, and trust God to forgive and justify us because the Lord Jesus died in our place, that moment our sins are forgiven and we are reckoned righteous and enter into a place above the seraphim, the place of God’s only and perfect Son, Jesus Christ. And we do not need to veil our faces or our feet when we come into His presence, for we are made perfectly “in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:6).

To “enter into the holiest,” then, to come into the very presence of God, “by the blood of Jesus,” means that when we draw near to God we should give up any and every thought that we have any acceptability before God in ourselves, realize that we are miserable sinners, and also believe that every sin of ours has been atoned for by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore come “with boldness” into the very presence of God, “into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus.” The best man or woman on earth cannot come into the presence of God on the ground of any merit of his own, not for one moment; nor get anything from God on the ground of his own goodness, not even the smallest blessing. But on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus Christ the vilest sinner who ever walked this earth, who has turned from his sin and accepted Jesus Christ and trusts in the shed blood as the ground of his acceptance before God, can come into the presence of God any day of the year, and any hour of the day or night, and with perfect boldness speak out every longing of his heart and get what he asks from God. Isn’t that wonderful? Yes, and, thank God, it is true.

Christian Scientists cannot really pray. What they call prayer is simply meditation or concentration of thought. It is not asking a personal God for a definite blessing; indeed, Mrs. Eddy denies the existence of a personal God, and she denies the atoning efficacy of the blood. She said that when the blood of Jesus Christ was shed on the cross of Calvary it did no more good than when it was running in His veins. So a Christian Scientist cannot really pray; he is not on praying ground.

Neither can a Unitarian really pray. Oh, he can take the name of God on his lips and call Him Father, and say beautiful words, but there is no real approach to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Some years ago in Chicago I was on a committee of three persons, one of whom was one of the leading Unitarian ministers of the city. He was a charming man in many ways. One day, at the close of our committee meeting, this Unitarian minister turned to me and said, “Brother Torrey, I often come over to your church to hear you.” I replied, “I am very glad to hear it.” Then he continued, “I especially love to go to your prayer meetings. Often on Friday nights I drop into your prayer meeting and sit down by the door, and I greatly enjoy it.” I replied, “I am glad that you do. But tell me something. Why don’t you have a prayer meeting in your own church?” “Well,” he said, “you have asked me an honest question and I will give you an honest answer. Because I can’t. I have tried it and it has failed every time.” Of course it failed, they had no ground of approach to God–they denied the atoning blood.

But there is many a supposedly orthodox Christian, and often in these days even supposedly orthodox ministers, who deny the atoning blood. They do not believe that the forgiveness of our sins is solely and entirely on the ground of the shedding of Jesus’ blood as an atonement for sin on our behalf on the cross of Calvary, and, therefore, they cannot really pray. There are not a few who call the theology that insists on the truth so very clearly taught in the Word of God, the doctrine of the substitutionary character of Christ’s death and that we are saved by the shedding of His blood, a “theology of the shambles” (that is, of the butcher shop).

Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in the Royal Albert Hall in London. I received through the mail one day one of our hymnbooks that some man had taken from the meeting. He had gone through it and cut out every reference to the blood of Christ. With the hymnbook was an accompanying letter, in which the man said, “I have gone through your hymnbook and cut out every reference to the blood in every place where it is found, and I am sending this hymnbook back to you. Now sing your hymns this way, with the blood left out, and there will be some sense in them.” I took the hymnbook to the meeting with me that afternoon and displayed it; it was a sadly mutilated book. I read the man’s letter, and then I said, “No, I will not cut the blood out of my hymnology, and I will not cut the blood out of my theology, for when I cut the blood out of my hymnology and my theology I will have to cut all access to God out of my experience.” No, men and women, you cannot approach God on any other ground than the shed blood, and until you believe in the blood of Jesus Christ as a perfect atonement for your sins, and as the only ground on which you can find forgiveness and Justification, real prayer is an impossibility.

2. You will find the second part of the answer to the question, How can we come into the presence of God and how can we be sure that we have come into His presence? In Ephesians 2:18, “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Here we have the same thought that we have already had, that we have just been presenting, that it is “through him,” that is, through Jesus Christ, that we have our access to the Father. But we have an additional thought, the thought that when we come into the presence of God through Jesus Christ, we come “in” the One Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit. Just what does that mean? It means this: It is the work of the Holy Spirit, when you and I pray, to take us by the hand as it were and lead us into the very presence of God and introduce us to Him, and to make God real to us as we pray. The Greek word translated “access” is the exact equivalent in its etymology of the word “introduction,” which is really a Latin word transliterated into English. As I say, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to introduce us to God, that is, to lead us into God’s presence, and to make God real to us as we pray (or return thanks, or worship). And in order that we may really come into the presence of God and be sure that we have come into His presence when we pray, we must look to the Holy Spirit to make God real to us while we are praying.

Have you ever had this experience, that when you knelt to pray it seemed as if there were no one there, as if you were just talking into the air, or into empty space? What shall we do at such a time as that? Shall we stop praying and wait until some time when we feel like praying? No, when we least feel like praying, and when God is least real to us, that is the time we most need to pray. What shall we do, then? Simply be quiet and look up to God and ask Him to fulfill His promise and send His Holy Spirit to lead us into His presence and to make Him real to us, and then wait and expect. And the Holy Spirit will come, and He will take us into God’s presence, and He will make God real to us. I can testify today that some of the most wonderful seasons of prayer I have ever had, have been times when as I first knelt to pray I had no real sense of God. It seemed that no one was there, it seemed as if I were talking into empty space; and then I have just looked up to God and asked Him and trusted Him to send His Holy Spirit to teach me to pray, to lead me into His presence, and to make Him real to me, and the Spirit has come, and He has made God so real to me that it almost seemed that if I opened my eyes I could see Him; in fact, I did see Him with the eyes of my soul.

One night at the close of a sermon in one of the churches on the South Side in Chicago, I went down the aisle to speak to some of the people. I stepped up to a middle-aged man and said to him, “Are you a Christian?” “No,” he replied, “I am an infidel. Did you ever see God?” I quickly replied, “Yes, I have seen God.” The man was startled and silenced. Did I mean that I had seen God with these eyes of my body? No. But, thank God, I have two pair of eyes; not only does my body have eyes, but my soul also has eyes. I pity the person who has only one pair of eyes, no matter how good those eyes are. I thank God I have two pairs of eyes, these bodily eyes with which I see you, and the eyes of my soul, with which I see God. God has given me wonderful eyes for my body, that at sixty-seven years of age I have never had to wear glasses and do not know what it means to have my eyes weary or painful under any circumstances. But I will gladly give up these eyes rather than those other eyes that God has given me, the eyes with which I see God.

This, then, is the way to come into the presence of God and to be sure that we have come into His presence: first, to come by the blood; second, to come in the Holy Spirit, looking to the Holy Spirit to lead us into the presence of God, and to make God real to us.

In passing, let me call your attention to the great practical importance of the doctrine of the Trinity. Many think that the doctrine of the Trinity is a purely abstract, metaphysical, and utterly impractical doctrine. Not at all. It involves our whole spiritual life, and it is of the highest importance in the very practical matter of praying. We need God the Father to pray to; we need Jesus Christ the Son to pray through; and we need the Holy Spirit to pray in. It is the prayer that is to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, under the guidance and in the power of the Holy Spirit, that God the Father answers.

II. With Intense Earnestness

Now let us consider another of the four words/phrases used in Acts 12:5 that contain the whole secret of prevailing prayer, the word “earnestly”–”The church was earnestly praying to God for him.” The word “earnestly” comes far nearer giving the force of the original language but even “earnestly” does not give the full force of the Greek word used. The Greek word is “ektenos,” which means, literally, “stretched-out-edly.” The King James translators came to translate it “without ceasing”: they thought of the prayer as stretched out a long time–unceasing prayer. But that is not the thought at all. The Greek word is never used in that sense anywhere in the New Testament, and I do not know of a place in Greek literature outside of the Bible where it is so used. The word is a pictorial word, as so many words are. It represents the soul stretched out in the intensity of its earnestness toward God.

Did you ever see a foot race? The racers are all toeing the mark waiting for the starter to say “Go,” or to fire the revolver as a signal to start. As the critical moment approaches, the runners become more and more tense, until when the word “Go” comes, or the revolver cracks, they go racing down the track with every nerve and muscle stretched toward their goal, and sometimes the veins stand out on the forehead like whipcords–every runner would be the winner! That is the picture, the soul stretched out in intense earnestness toward God in intense earnestness of desire.

It is the same word that is used in the comparative mood in Luke 22:44, which reads, “Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” The thought is, as I have said, of the soul being stretched out toward God in intense earnestness of desire. Probably the most accurate translation that could be given in a single word would be “intensely”: “The church was intensely praying to God for him.” In fact, the word “intensely” is from the same root, but has a different prefix. In the 1911 Bible the passage is translated, “Instant and earnest prayer was made of the church unto God for him,” which is not a bad paraphrase, though it is not a translation. And “Intensely earnest prayer was made of the church unto God for him” would be an even better rendering.

It is the intensely earnest prayer to which God pays attention, and which He answers. This thought comes out again and again in the Bible. We find it even in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” We here discover the reason why so many of our prayers are unheard of God. There is so little heart in them, so little intensity of desire for the thing asked, that there is no reason why God should pay any attention to them. Suppose I should ask all of you if you prayed this morning. Doubtless almost every one of you would reply, “Yes, I did.” Then suppose I should ask you again, “For what did you pray this morning?” I fear that some of you would hesitate and ponder and then have to say, “Really, I forget for what I did pray this morning.” Well, then, God will forget to answer. But if I should ask some of you if you prayed this morning you would say, “Yes.” Then if I asked you for what you prayed you could tell me at once, for you always pray for the same thing. You have just a little rote of prayer that you go through each morning or each night. You fall on your knees, go through your little prayer automatically, scarcely thinking of what you are saying, in fact, oftentimes you do not think of what you are saying but think of a dozen other things while you are repeating your prayer. Such prayer is profanity, taking the name of God in vain.

When Mrs. Torrey and I were in India, she went up to Darjeeling, in the Himalayas, on the borders of Tibet. I was unable to go because of being so busy with meetings in Calcutta. When she came back she brought with her a Tibetan praying wheel. Did you ever see one? A little round brass cup on the top of a stick; the cup revolves when the stick is whirled. The Tibetan writes out his prayers, drops them into the cup, and then whirls the stick and the wheel goes round and the prayers are said. That is just the way a great many Americans pray, except that the wheel is in their head instead of being on the top of a stick. They kneel down and rattle through a rote of prayer, day after day the same thing, with scarcely any thought of what they are praying for. That kind of prayer is profanity, “taking the name of God in vain,” and it has no power whatever with God. It is a pure waste of time, or worse than a waste of time.

But if I should ask some of you what you prayed for this morning you could tell me, for as you were in prayer the Spirit of God came on you, and with a great heartache of intensity of desire you cried to God for that thing you must have. Well, God will hear your prayer and give you what you asked. If we are to pray with power we must pray with intense earnestness, throw our whole soul into the prayer. This thought comes out again and again in the Bible. For example, we find it in Romans 15:30, “I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” The word translated “struggle” in this verse is “sunagonizo” (Greek). “Agonizo” (Greek) means to “contend” or “strive” or “wrestle” or “fight.”

We
hear a great deal these days about “the rest of faith,” by which men usually mean that we should take things very calmly in our Christian life, and when we pray we simply come into God’s presence like a little child and quietly and trustfully ask Him for the thing desired and count it ours, and go away very calmly, and consider the thing ours. Now, there is a truth in that, a great truth; but it is only one side of the truth, and a truth usually has two sides. And the other side of the truth is this, that there is not only the “rest of faith” but there is also the “fight of faith,” and my Bible has more to say about “the fight of faith” than it has about “the rest of faith.” The thought of wrestling or fighting in prayer is not the thought that we have to wrestle with God to make God willing to grant our prayers. No, “our wrestling is . . . against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12), against the devil and all his mighty forces, and there is no place where the devil so resists us as when we pray. Sometimes when we pray it seems as if all the forces of hell sweep in between us and God. What shall we do? Give up? No! A thousand times, no! Fight the thing through on your knees, wrestle in your prayer to God, and win.

Some years ago I was attending a Bible conference in Dr. James H. Brooks’ old church in St. Louis. On the program was one of the most distinguished and most gifted Bible teachers that America ever produced, and he was speaking this day on “The Rest of Faith.” He said, “I challenge anybody to show me a single passage in the Bible where we are told to wrestle in prayer.” Now one speaker does not like to contradict another, but here was a challenge, and I was sitting on the platform, and I was obliged to take it up. So I said in a low tone of voice, “Romans 15:30, brother.” He was a good enough Greek scholar to know that I had him, and what is more rare, he was honest enough to own it up on the spot. Yes, the Bible bids us “wrestle in prayer,” and it is the prayer in which we actually wrestle in the power of the Holy Spirit that wins with God. The root of the word translated “struggle” is “agone” (Greek), from which our word “agony” comes. Oh that we might have more agonizing prayer.

Turn now to Colossians 4:12, 13, and you will find the same thought again, put in other words, “Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you.” The words translated “working hard” is a very strong word; it means intense toil, or, painful labor. Do you know what it means to toil in prayer, to labor with painful toil in prayer? Oh, how easily most of us take our praying, how little heart we put into it, and how little it takes out of us, and how little it counts with God.

The mighty men of God who throughout the centuries have wrought great things by prayer are the men who have had much painful toil in prayer. Take, for example, David Brainerd, that physically feeble but spiritual mighty man of God. Trembling for years on the verge of consumption (TB), from which he ultimately died at an early age, David Brainerd felt led of God to labor among the North American Indians in the early days, in the primeval forests of northern Pennsylvania, and sometimes on a winter night he would go out into the forest and kneel in the cold snow when it was a foot deep and so labor with God in prayer that he would be wringing wet with perspiration even out in the cold winter-night hours. And God heard David Brainerd and sent such a mighty revival among the North American Indians as had never been heard of before, as, indeed, had never been dreamed of.

And not only did God send an answer to David Brainerd’s prayers this mighty revival among the North American Indians, but also in answer to David Brainerd’s prayers he transformed David Brainerd’s father-in-law, Jonathan Edwards, that mighty prince of metaphysicians, probably the mightiest thinker that America has ever produced (the only American metaphysician whose name is in the American Hall of Fame), into Jonathan Edwards the flaming evangelist, who so preached on the subject of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in the church at Enfield, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that the strong men in the audience felt as if the very floor of the church were falling out and they were sinking into hell, and they sprang to their feet and threw their arms around the pillars of the church and cried to God for mercy. Oh that we had more men who could pray like David Brainerd, then we would have more men that could preach like Jonathan Edwards.

I once used this illustration of David Brainerd at a conference in New York State. Dr. Park, the grandson and biographer of Jonathan Edwards, who was in my audience, came to me at the close and said, “I have always felt that there was something abnormal about David Brainerd.” I replied, “Doctor Park, it would be a good thing for you and a good thing for me if we had a little more of that kind of abnormality.” Indeed it would, and it would be a good thing if many of us who are here this morning had that kind of so-called “abnormality” that bows a man down with intensity of longing for the power of God, that would make us pray in the way that David Brainerd prayed.

But a very practical question arises at this point. How can we get this intense earnestness in prayer? The Bible answers the question very plainly and simply. There are two ways of having earnestness in prayer, a right way and a wrong way. The wrong way is to work it up in the energy of the flesh. Have you never seen it done? A man kneels down by a chair to pray; he begins very calmly and then he begins to work himself up and begins to shout and scream and pound the chair, and sometimes he spits foam, and he screams until your head is almost splitting with the loud uproar. That is the wrong way, that is false fire; that is the energy of the flesh, which is an abomination to God. If possible, that is even worse than the careless, thoughtless prayers of which I have spoken.

But there is a right way to obtain real, heart-stirring, heart-wringing, and God-moving earnestness in prayer. What the right way is the Bible tells us. It tells us in Romans 8:26-27, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” That is the right way–look to the Spirit to create the earnestness. The earnestness that counts with God is not the earnestness that you or I work up; it is the earnestness that the Holy Spirit creates in our hearts. Have you never gone to God in prayer and there was no earnestness in your prayer at all, it was just words, words, words, a mere matter of form, when it seemed there was no real prayer in your heart? What shall we do at such a time as that? Stop praying and wait until we feel more like praying? No. If there is ever a time when one needs to pray it is when he does not feel like praying. What shall we do? Be silent and look up to God to send His Holy Spirit, according to His promise, to move your heart to prayer and to awaken and create real earnestness in your heart in prayer: and God will send Him and you will pray with intense earnestness, very likely “with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

I wish to testify right here that some of the times of deepest earnestness that I have ever known in prayer came when at the outset I seemed to have no prayer in my heart at all, and all attempt to pray was mere words, words, empty form. And then I looked up to God to send His Spirit according to His promise to teach me to pray, and I waited and the Spirit of God came on me in mighty power and I cried to God, sometimes with groanings which could not be uttered.

I shall never forget a night in Chicago. After the general prayer meetings for a world-wide revival had been going on for some time, the man who was most closely associated with me in the conduct of the meetings came over to my house one night after the meeting was over and said, “Brother Torrey, what do you say to our having a time alone with God every Saturday night after the other meetings are over? I do not mean,” he continued, “that we will actually promise to come together every Saturday night; but let us have it tonight, anyway.” Oh, such a night of prayer as we had that night. I shall never forget that, but it was not that night that I am especially thinking of now. After we had been meeting some weeks, he suggested that we invite in a few others, which we did; and every Saturday night after the general prayer meeting was closed at ten o’clock we few would gather in some secluded place where we would not disturb others to pray together. There were never more than a dozen persons present; usually there were six or seven. One night, before kneeling in prayer, we told one another the things we desired especially to ask of God that night, and then we knelt to pray and a long silence followed. No one prayed. And one of the little company looked up and said, “I cannot pray, there seems to be something resisting me.” Then another raised his head and said, “Neither can I pray, something seems to be resisting me.” We went around the whole circle, and each one had the same story.

What did we do? Break up the prayer meeting? No. If ever we felt the need of prayer it was then, and quietly we all bowed before God and looked to Him to send His Holy Spirit to enable us to pray to victory. And soon the Spirit of God came on one and another, and I have seldom heard such praying as I heard that night. And then the Spirit of God came on me and led me out in such a prayer as I had never dreamed of praying. I was led to ask God that He would send me around the world preaching the Gospel, and give me to see thousands saved in China, in Japan, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Tasmania, in India, in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, and Switzerland; and when I finished praying that night I knew I was going, and I knew what I would see as well as I knew afterward when the actual report came of the mighty things that God had wrought. That prayer meeting sent me around the world preaching the Gospel. Oh, that is how we must pray if we would get what we ask in prayer–pray with the intense earnestness that the Holy Spirit alone can inspire.

III. The Church

Now let us look briefly at another one of the four phrases, the phrase “the church.” The prayer that God particularly delights to answer is united prayer. There is power in the prayer of a single individual, and the prayer of individuals has wrought great things, but there is far greater power in united prayer. Our Lord Jesus taught this same great truth in Matthew 18:19, 20, “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” God delights in the unity of His people, and He does everything in His power to promote that unity, and so He especially honors unity in prayer. There is power in the prayer of one true believer: there is far more power in the united prayer of two, and greater power in the united prayer of still more.

But it must be real unity. This comes out in the exact words our Lord uses. He says, “If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” It is one of the most frequently misquoted and most constantly abused promises in the whole Bible. It is often quoted as if it read this way, “If two of you on earth agree to ask anything, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” But it actually reads, “If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” Someone may say, “I do not see any essential difference.” Let me explain it to you. Someone else has a burden on his heart, he comes to you and asks you to unite with him in praying for deliverance and you consent, and you both pray for it. Now you are “agreed” in praying, but you are not agreed at all “about anything” you ask. He asks for it because he intensely desires it; you ask for it simply because he asks you to ask for it. You are not at all agreed “about anything” you ask. But when God, by His Holy Spirit, puts the same burden on two hearts, and they thus in the unity of the Spirit pray for the same thing, there is not power enough on earth or in hell to keep them from getting it. Our Heavenly Father will do for them the thing that they ask.

IV. For Him

Now let us look at the fourth phrase, “for him.” The prayer was definite prayer for a definite person; and that is the kind of prayer God answers, definite prayer. Oh how general and vague many of our prayers are. They are very pretty, they sound nice, they are charmingly phrased, but they ask no definite, specific thing, and they get no definite, specific answer. When you pray to God, have a very definite, clear-cut idea of just exactly what it is you want of God, and ask Him for that definite and specific thing; and, if you meet the other conditions of prevailing prayer, you will get that definite, specific thing which you asked. God’s answer will be just as definite as your prayer.

In closing, let me call your attention to our dependence on the Holy Spirit in all our praying if we are to accomplish anything by our prayers. It is the Holy Spirit, as we saw in our study of the first phrase, who enables us really to pray “to God,” who leads us into the presence of God and makes God real to us. It is the Holy Spirit, again, who gives us the intense earnestness in prayer that prevails with God. Still again, it is the Holy Spirit who brings us into unity so that we know the power of really united prayer. And it is the Holy Spirit who shows us the definite things for which we should definitely pray.

To sum it all up, the prayer that God answers is the prayer that is to God the Father, that is on the ground of the atoning blood of God the Son, and that is under the direction and in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

R. A. Torrey Archive 

Concerning the basics of Christianity

But what does Jesus’ Jewish identity have to do with anything? This is never magnified in the New Testament. Jesus is the Savior of all who will repent and submissively trust in him. Rev. 7 states there will be people in God’s kingdom from every tribe, people, language and nation all redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. Of what nationality Messiah was as He walked the earth is totally irrelevant.

http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/yeshua.htm#yeshua or jesus

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Has the real Christian Church gotten far removed from the Jewish roots of the faith? Yes.

Is ethnic Israel is essentially irrelevant? Yes.

Is Christianity essentially anti-Jewish in its perspective? Yes .

Is it possible to be a sincere Christian and yet be Jewish? No.

Is Christianity really Anti-Jewish? Yes..

The Jews, Messianic Jews today are falsely busy trying to rewrite the Bible to their own liking.. wasting their time banging their heads on the wall of all things.. why? cause they do not like the truths set forth by Jesus Christ, the Church and Christianity.. too bad for them. I too have never been to Israel and I have no desire to ever go there, expressing a clear indifference to Israel’s past, present, as Jesus is now my sole love. past, present, future..

Real Christianity assume a “New Testament priority interpretations now ” when reading the past “Old Testament.” We apply the terms of the Greek New Testament as we “read backwards” to the Old. It is impossible and absurd to to first take false pains to understand the meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures — and especially the Hebraic mindset — before we draw our conclusions about the meaning of the New Testament because God wrote both the old and New testament and he has issued a New Testament now. This new Testament applies to all “To the Hebrew first, and then to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16; 3:1-2). While the “Old Testament” are writings from God, by Jews solely to Jews the “New Testament” now applies both to the Jews and the gentiles as well.

Furthermore the use of carnal, fleshly human logic to ascertaining the meaning of any scriptural text is futile, a complete waste of time rather, as we must rely on the author, God the holy Spirit still to illuminate its real, true meaning, and not any supposedly valid even historical meanings, “hermeneutics., “which many Godless still people falsely fail to do and why there is so much Bible misinterpretations amongst so many now too.

John 4
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

John 8
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 14
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

John 15
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16
13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Throughout the centuries, the doctrines concerning the Trinity and the DIVINE nature of Christ have constituted the Christian foundation, and the church has used these definitional doctrines as the standard for identifying true Christians. Jesus Christ the Messiah is the anointed descendant of David who  not only will reign and rule over Israel forever and ever but is the Saviour of all mankind and will rule over everyone now too.. While the Church was  was born in a Jewish cradle in Jerusalem, on a Jewish holiday, and the forebears of the faith were Jews they the New Converts they no longer remained Jews but became Christians, a new faith. While Seventy-seven percent of the Bible is the  Hebrew Bible,   the remaining 23 percent, the more  prominent New Testament, was written in Greek indicating the significant change of the new faith. Christ,” from whence is derived the word “Christian” is the English term for the Greek “Khristos” meaning “the anointed one”.

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Acts 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

2 Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

Hebrews 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

“Jesus” addressing Him by the Greek Name that His mother and Father gave Him since Greek was the main, common language in that area for 300 years is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah… He calls all those who are His Disciples to follow Him and walk as He walked (1 John 2:1-6). He dies to self, Jewish Nationalism, any earthly kingdom, ambitions too for the good of all mankind and not solely the Jews. All of the  believers in Him  should   walk as He did teach too.. My kingdom is not of this world…. but a Heavenly one..  John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. In brief, also now the “church” of the First Century did not observe Judaism, As it didn’t have Jewish laws anymore  doctrines.   the “Church had replaced Israel” and THE CHURCH is now, “Spiritual Israel.” The “Church” of the First Century also observed a New  world-view. It was  not Torah zealous (Acts 21:20). It did not observe The Biblical Feasts and holy-days. It DID NOT observe  a Biblical kashruit (kosher), it did not observed Jewish concepts  or the Biblical dietary laws, or  the Jewish Sabbath. With such major distinctive between New testament Greek and the old Hebrew scriptures    we all should be very careful about formulating any of  our theological doctrines from the past Hebrew only perspective.

Rightly dividing the word of truth Jesus Christ and his words the Bible over the Christian Church and Israel is easy.. The power of God unto salvation now has eluded many until they do open their mind to the once strange idea that Jesus and Paul were my apostles and the master builders of the Christian Church – separate and distinct from anything related to the nation Israel.By removing Israel out of the way they are able to see clearly the distinctive doctrine of Jesus and Apostle Paul’s gospel of grace and believe, and be saved. Many have remained lost after years of journeying through various denominations that blur the line between Israel and the Christian Church.

The fullness of the power of God, the Holy Spirit, even unto salvation eludes them as a direct result. Now the Christian Church is not a continuation of Israel for many it is still quite a conundrum and difficult to see where Israel ends and the Christian Church begins because they are Bible ignorant, have not read, studied the New testament for themselves but have listed to the mostly lies of men..

Here is a model that works as an illustration of the God-directed transition from Israel to the Christian Church.

The ISRAEL Ltd. employee rebellion In this model Israel is called ISRAEL Ltd. – a strictly national earthly company that the heaven-based Owner chose to temporarily shut down due to a long running and widespread employee rebellion. Throughout the company’s history the Owner’s earthly representatives had been rarely obeyed and were more often ignored, rejected and/or killed. The rebellion came to a head when the Owner sent his Son from heaven to take hands-on earthly control of the corporation. The employees rejected his authority and had him killed. The Owner then raised his Son from the dead and recalled him to heaven to sit at his right hand. The Owner made one final bid for control of ISRAEL Ltd. by sending his Holy Spirit as an internal, invisible presence among his loyal employees on earth. The rebellious employees instigated a persecution of the Spirit-filled employees and declared their rejection of the Owner’s Holy Spirit by killing one of his brightest lights.

The new recruit – masterbuilder of CHRISTIANS Ltd. The Owner’s glorified Son then manifested from heaven to forcibly recruit the rebellion’s point man and give him the role of masterbuilder of a new corporation – CHRISTIANS Ltd. He was to go offshore and hire a foreign workforce. The Owner revealed to this new recruit that through his foreknowledge he had always planned the establishment of the new multinational corporation and that the death, burial and resurrection of his Son was not a setback but was really a great victory – secretly planned from the outset. His Son’s work had made it possible for each employee to have a direct link with him and his Son in heaven via the internal presence of his Holy Spirit – the ultimate in a ‘flat’, non-hierarchical management structure. The Owner also revealed that a small remnant of the staff of ISRAEL Ltd. had been kept on by the new corporation.

ISRAEL Ltd. employees had gone about establishing their own righteousness by obeying an array of laws and ordinances.

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Romans 10:3-4 AV)

CHRISTIANS Ltd. employees submit themselves unto the righteousness of God when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:” (Romans 3:21-22 AV)

Scriptural basis – ISRAEL Ltd. employee rebellion

The scriptures regarding Israel’s history of unfaithfulness to God, their poor treatment of most of his prophets and their rejection and murder of God’s Son are well known. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, summed it all up just prior to being stoned to death by his countryme

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7:51-60 AV)

With the stoning of Stephen, the nation Israel’s rejection of God’s Holy Spirit was communicated to him in no uncertain terms. The battered body of the ‘man with the face of an angel’ was dumped on God’s doorstep. God then withdrew Israel’s ‘most favoured nation’ status – a reality that Israel and most Christians still haven’t cottoned onto. This change in status was first revealed to Peter in Acts 10.

“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” (Acts 10:34-35 AV

God currently does not have a ‘most favoured nation’. He has only his new creature – the Church, the body of Christ, which in my model is represented by the new multinational corporation under the headship of his Son in heaven with each employee directly joined with him via the indwelling Holy Spirit.

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1Cor 12:13 AV)

“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Eph 2:18 AV)

God has a long-standing covenant with his beloved ISRAEL and he will honour it after the new corporation has reached its fulness and has departed the earth.

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” (Rom 11:25-32 AV)

Scriptural basis – the new recruit, the wise masterbuilder

Saul (later Paul) was the zealous point man of ISRAEL Ltd.’s rebellion against the Holy Spirit. He was consenting to the death of Stephen and on his way to arrest other Spirit-filled employees at Damascus when the risen and glorified Lord intervened.

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” (Acts 9:1-6 AV)

The Lord gave Ananias at Damascus a glimpse of what was in store for Saul.

“Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:13-16 AV)

The Church at Syrian Antioch with its large Gentile membership was the first branch of the new multinational and where it got its name – CHRISTIANS Ltd. Saul did not plant this Church but ministered there in partnership with others.

“And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the Church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the Church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” (Acts 11:20-26 AV)

Paul (Saul’s Greco-Roman name) got the extremely hazardous task of going further abroad and setting up more branches of the new multinational corporation with a foreign workforce, (we heathen, pagan Gentile dogs in the face of hordes of hostile employees of the shut down ISRAEL Ltd. who did not believe for a moment that he was acting upon orders from their God. Paul was initially in partnership with Barnabas but later became the ‘apostle of the Gentiles’.

“Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.” (Acts 13:1-4 AV)

“And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.” (Acts 22:21 AV)

“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:” (Rom 11:13 AV)

“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1Cor 3:9-11 AV)

“But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.” (Acts 13:45 AV)

“And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.” (Acts 14:19 AV)

CHRISTIANS Ltd. was regularly infiltrated by Judaisers (disgruntled employees of the shut down ISRAEL Ltd.) with an agenda to sabotage their freedom under grace and put them back under the law – preferably circumcised as well. They thought the Gentiles were being employed by ISRAEL Ltd. and should act accordingly.

“And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:” (Gal 2:4 AV)

To Paul was given the revelation of ISRAEL Ltd. being temporarily shut down.

“What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?” (Rom 11:7-12 AV)

Paul was also given the revelation of the mystery – God’s plan of salvation kept secret since the world began. (See the study – ‘Progressive Revelation and the Revelation of the Mystery’.)

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,” (Rom 16:25 AV)

Which employees of ISRAEL Ltd. were absorbed into CHRISTIANS Ltd.?

Most of the employees of ISRAEL Ltd. did not find employment in the new multinational corporation – only a remnant according to the election of grace. Those employees of ISRAEL Ltd. who continued to go about establishing their own righteousness were not eligible for employment in the new multinational corporation.

“But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;” (Rom 9:31-32 AV)

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Rom 10:3-4 AV)

The above scriptures declare that the criteria for ISRAEL Ltd. employees to be kept on in CHRISTIANS Ltd., was not merely whether or not they believed that Jesus Christ was their Messiah. It was whether or not they also ceased from ‘going about to establish their own righteousness’ by the works of the law.

James and his ‘thousands of Jews’ never left Judaism

The above criteria would exclude James’ multitude in Jerusalem, encountered by Paul in Acts 21, who were all ‘zealous of the law’ and keen for Paul to demonstrate that he also ‘keepest the law’.

“And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.” (Acts 21:20-24 AV)

Paul chose not to do battle with James over the issue of his continuing reliance upon the law for righteousness. He perhaps sensed the hopelessness of overcoming such deep-seated and widespread ignorance of the new dispensation. Imagine the uproar if Paul had immediately responded to the above comments by James with what he had already told the Galatian Churches.

“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (Gal 2:21 AV)

It is most likely that the James that led the Jerusalem church in Acts 21 is the same James that wrote the epistle of James in our New Testament. All scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit so it is apparent that for a time there was a large body of Jews led by a man who had received the Holy Spirit and yet continued to be “zealous of the law”. I have come to see that this is a contradictory conundrum that I must avoid wading into (as I have done previously). That James was beloved of God is not in doubt so who am I to criticise God?

But for the sake of doctrinal clarity I prefer to think of James and his multitude as clinging to the doctrine given by Moses and remaining ignorant of the doctrine revealed to Paul. It was altogether too much for James and his Jerusalem church to accept that their contemporary, this ‘Johnny come lately’ upstart Paul, had received revelation of new doctrine which fulfilled and superseded that given to Moses.

Peter, John, Barnabas and many others became Christians

As with any major corporate restructuring there was a period of transition and confusion. Although I am swimming against the tide of opinion of many highly esteemed mid-Acts teachers, I believe that a small group of Peter’s little flock at Jerusalem, who acknowledged the ongoing revelation given by the Lord to Paul, were the elect remnant of ISRAEL Ltd., absorbed into the new multinational CHRISTIANS Ltd.

It is clear that Peter kept up to date with Paul’s epistles and went so far as to class them with ‘the other scriptures’ in his second epistle, written several years after Paul wrote Romans.

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (2 Pet 3:15-16 AV)

It is also clear by the word of God in the book of Acts that several Jews who had been members of Peter’s little flock were present at Antioch in the period reported in Acts 11. Barnabas, who was first mentioned in Acts 4 (5 chapters before Paul got saved), was among them.

“And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,” (Acts 4:36 AV)

Barnabas and several other members of Peter’s little flock were among those who were ‘first called Christians’ at Antioch.

“And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the Church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26 AV)

John’s gospel, written long after Paul had been martyred, is overwhelming evidence that John had also come to understand that belief or faith in Christ was the ‘end of the law for righteousness’.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13 AV)

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17 AV)

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:14-16 AV)

After Paul was well down the road of establishing the new corporation, he declared in his epistle to the Romans that the employees of the shut down company ISRAEL Ltd., now fell into one of two categories: they were either among the remnant according to the election of grace or they were blinded.

Who would dare include Peter, John and many of the other saints at Jerusalem among the blinded portion of Israel?

“Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded” (Rom 11:5-7 AV)

Who would dare tell Peter that he was not a Christian

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” (1Pet 4:15-16 AV)

Why did Paul rebuke Peter at Antioch?

Paul’s action in rebuking Peter for his dissimulation (hiding his true feelings) at Antioch is very clear evidence of his concept of the body of Christ. Peter and Barnabas had been mixing freely with the Gentiles until certain Jews came from James. The arrival of James’ people caused them to remove themselves from among the Gentiles and eat in the ‘Jews only’ section. James’ people retained a patronizing attitude toward Gentile believers and this infected Peter and Barnabas. They still had the old “wall of partition” in place in their minds.

“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.” (Galatians 2:11-13 AV)

Paul’s rebuking of Peter would not have been necessary if he considered Peter to be in a separate Church, or body, to the Church, the body of Christ. But Paul strongly opposed Peter’s actions thereby revealing that he considered Peter to be a member of the same Church as he and the Gentiles – the Church the body of Christ.

Note that Paul did not rebuke the “certain Jews who came from James”. Why not? I believe it was for the same reason he did not argue ‘law vs grace’ with James on the occasion of his direct encounter with James and his multitude of believers in Acts 21. Paul was “walking circumspectly” and choosing his battles. James and his multitude were virtually indistinguishable from unbelieving Israel and were “old wine bottles” of law that would burst with the wine of the new dispensation of grace.

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Ephesians 5:15-17

Is Christ divided?

The Church, the body of Christ, is constituted of all who have received the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, regardless of whether or not they had hands laid on them or were water baptized before or after receiving it. If these Jewish rituals are the determining factors then our apostle Paul does not qualify as a member of the body. Paul received the Holy Spirit through water baptism and the laying on of hands – not on the road to Damascus but three days later. The manner of his receiving of the Holy Spirit was in direct continuance of the spreading of the Holy Spirit among the Jews and Samaritans after the initial outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

“And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.” (Acts 9:17-18 AV)

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8:9 AV)

We are right to believe that the grace dispensation did not begin until some time after Israel had rejected the Holy Spirit by killing Stephen in Acts 7. We are wrong to exclude any who have received the Holy Spirit (and continued in faith) from the body of Christ. If once having received the Spirit by the hearing of faith, members (such as James and his people) do not continue by the hearing of faith (but rather by the works of the law), they are excluded – not by a judgment of God as such, but because it is faith (not works) that GETS us into the body of Christ and it is faith (not works) that KEEPS us there.

“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;” (Romans 10:8 AV)

“Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:” (Romans 11:20 AV)

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-3 AV)

The ministry of the Spirit changed over the time between Acts 2 and Acts 28, as establishment Israel’s hardening against the Lord became set in concrete. As the enemy of Christ (the spirit of antichrist) takes on different tactics and guises, so the Spirit of Christ ministers according to the circumstances believers are placed in and the Lord’s will for them.

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17 AV)

The supposed division of Peter’s Jewish remnant from the Church, as taught by most mid-Acts teachers, would have been in effect at the time Paul first wrote to the Corinthians, some of whom were ‘Peter’ Christians and some of whom were ‘Paul’ Christians. I will let the apostle have the final say on this matter. (No doubt most of you are aware that Peter is also referred to as Cephas in the NT.)

“For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:11-13 AV)

see http://www.johnbisset.com/Rightly%20Dividing%20Israel%20and%20the%20Christian%20Church.htm

THE FACT THAT THE NEW TESTAMENT IS FALSELY MISUNDERSTOOD & MISINTERPRETED BY TOO MANY OF THE CULTS, JUDIAZERS, JEWS AND MESSIANIC JEWS IS AN ONGOING REALITY WHERE SADLY THE DEVIL HAS MANY INDIVIDUALS EVEN NOW FALSELY RETURNING TO THE HEBREW AND JEWISH ROOTS , OR THE OBSOLETE JEWISH FAITH THAT WILL NOW CAUSE THEM TO EVEN GO TO HELL WHEN THEY DIE TOO.

The first truth that should come to our minds right from the start is that the earliest expression of Christianity in the first century was not a Jewish one nor Hebraic one from its very core doctrinally, as real Christians undeniably were all kicked out of the Jewish synagogues for their holding non Jewish views.

When did the religion of the Jewish Christ-Messiah change for the non-Jew, when the Jews had clearly, falsely, undeniably rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah.. While firstly God chose the Jewish people and the Jewish religion when revealing “the Christ” to humankind thousands of years ago from even the birth of Judaism. But now also the “the mind of Christ,” is a not “Jewish” mind and not a Gentile or non-Jewish mind but solely to THE MIND OF THE Holy Spirit of God.. As what the Bible equally calls, in 2 Peter 1:12, the “present truth.”

2 Peter 1: 1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

At firstly one that is a Jew who follows after Jesus Christ they might have originally thought it would be best to be a part of the New Jerusalem Church, but as a Jew even, unless you had made a full-conversion to Christianity, you still then rightfully would have been an “outsider,” going to Hell..

Hence, the problem for the Christians: What is Christianity to do with the Jews who want to come to the knowledge of God, but they still not make full conversion to Jesus Christ when we realize that the revelation of Christ in the New Testament, personified by Jesus, and that the followers of the Jewish Christ-Messiah were solely Christians now and not Jews, even if all 26 books in the New Testament were penned by ex Jews, it should begin to awaken us to the fact that the earliest expression of Christianity was not Jewish one and that the first century “Church” was not a Jewish Church at all; as it was not a synagogue at all.

Acts 2:42 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (KJV)

1Co 12:12-31 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body…. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.

If one has done any serious study into the history and origin of Christianity, The New testament then they have, without a doubt, noticed this truth, fact even in the Apostle’s Doctrine and as a result we find Judaism and Christianity polarized at different, opposite ends of the theological spectrum. The Christian Church, since the first century C.E., has been under a mindset that primarily comes from a Greek New testament perspective. For almost eighteen hundred years, the expression of Christianity has existed devoid of the any continual, applicable Hebraic understanding of the sacred Scriptures in the New Testament Bible even the “faith once given the saints.” Here thus we have an honest, clear view of the Early Christian Church worship, beginnings.

No you cannot be a Jew or a Messianic Jew and still even claim to be a Christian as for one trying to keep any part of the Jewish religion he is s till and ungodly infidel rather going to Hell and not Heaven. Jesus died for the Jews but most of them they chose not to accept him.. The Jews to God today are like the Apostle Judas who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The Jews and all Messianic Jews have become the lost Sheep and are all are still now going to hell . Yes Judaism is not… Christianity minus Jesus. Judaism is the left over shell that Jesus had discarded..Matthew 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

Luke 13:35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

Galatians 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Many Jews falsely still refuse to admit the truth that the “New Israel of the Holy Spirit”, the Church now supersedes the “old Israel of the flesh”. And all of God’s past promises to ‘physical’ Israel have been terminated now, cancelled, as they rather have been transferred to the new ‘spiritual’ Israel – i.e. the Church all as a result caused when the Jews had falsely rejected their Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ.

The reality is that the Christian Gentiles and Jews solely were now on the receiving end of the past Jewish chosen status, the past once Jewish only blessings.

Israel ‘s past spiritual heritage itself as the Bible indicates was disgraceful as they continually departed

from God and from the Observances of his laws to them! The still even lying Messianic Jews are still falsely trying to come into Heaven itself by a back door through their revised false Messianic Yeshua Hebrew Roots movement who falsely demand that we all follow the Old Laws still. The complete Bible, including the New Testament, however, is not a book about Israel , and Israel alone but it is about the coming of Jesus Christ to save the whole world, the Gentiles included and not just the Jews.

The Jews had also falsely rejected their Messiah because he made it clear he was not going to support or to rebuild the State of Israel to any world prominence, and while sixty million supposed Christians may support Zionism the return of the Jews to their past promise land, the New Testament and 2 Billions Christians do not support this, as this Revised Judaism is still a work of the carnal, Jewish Flesh and not the Work of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit.

· The New testament Scripture says that the old law and Judaism is obsolete.

· Paul says that salvation is by faith, not by trying to keep the law.

· The old Law can only declare us guilty, not rescue us.

· The Old law cannot affect the promise of salvation by faith.

· The law of Moses was only for the Jews and was designed to be temporary.

· Being obligated to the law of Moses is falsely being slavery.

Hebrews 8:13 also describes the Old Covenant between God and His Jews as obsolete, replaced by the New Covenant in Christ. A major theme of Hebrews is the superiority of the New Covenant of Christ over the Old Covenant of Moses. While it is true that the Old Covenant has become obsolete due to the failure of the Jews to keep its precepts, the New Covenant is explicitly intended for them as well as the Gentiles. It is of this Covenant in Christ that the author of Hebrews says, “For this is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put My laws into their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Hebrews 8:10) The Old Covenant is obsolete not because God has forsaken the Jews, but because He has offered them something better, namely life in Christ.

The Negative Connotation of “Judaism, Jews”  Continues even today sadly. Unfortunately, those who have called themselves “Jews” even the Messianic Jews who are known for their hatred of Christians and the church too today even, with their visible superior attitudes they  have not behaved themselves well over the centuries as the still  false deniers  of Jesus the “Christ.” Particularly heinous is the treatment BY the Jewish people  THE Christians AND THE OTHERS over the centuries and even today as we can see in Palestine too..

Like all Jews, Messianic Jews, cults, Jehovah witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, church of God, Mormons, etc.,  they present  “another testament of Jesus Christ,” mainly a false ones rather that we all need to avoid too as they falsely, wrongfully do rejects what the real, orthodox Christianity affirms . They for sure are not Christianity by definition or description.

Christians alone now are the chosen people of God.

Here is what the Jews, even the Messianc Jews they falsely still fail to admit.. As Jacob was upon his death bed, he made prophecies concerning his various sons. Concerning Judah he said: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. – Gen 49:10

The Hebrew word for Shiloh is thought to mean peaceable or tranquil however  the term is used here in direct reference to the Messiah. The text asserted that the tribe of Judah would have governmental authority until the Messiah came. This authority commenced with the ascent of David to the throne. In the days of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the kingdom became divided and the southern part was called Judah. It consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and some of Levi and a handful from the remaining 10 tribes, but its kings were always from Judah. After the Babylonian conquest, there were no longer any Jewish kings; however, there continued to be great lawgivers from the tribe of Judah, such as Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, and this continued until the times of Jesus. Then with the Roman invasion around A.D. 70, the Jews were dispersed to a greater degree than ever before and their genealogical records were destroyed. Though the Jews have been partially regathered to their homeland in recent times, none of their current political leaders can prove themselves to be of the tribe of Judah.

The sceptre undeniably and clearly therefore fell from Judah forever  in the times of Jesus, for Jesus Christ alone  is the Messiah.

Furthermore, the prophet Hosea wrote: For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days. – Hos 3:4-5

Anyone should plainly see that this prophecy is an exact description of the state of the Jews from the times of Jesus until now. This prophecy also defines a time in which the sceptre has clearly departed from their hands. The sceptre has been taken from them because it belongs to Jesus Christ, and it can never be rightfully possessed by another. Not by the Jews even.

All People who think they can improve their standing with God through the law are misunderstanding its purpose and are not accepting the biblical evidence that salvation is simply by faith, without any role for human efforts. We receive the Spirit by faith and are counted righteous by faith, without any need to add the Law of Moses. As the Law of Moses has fulfilled its purpose, showing that no one can live under it, so next it has become obsolete: “Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law”. Because of Jesus our relationship with God depends entirely on faith. “You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus”. When it comes to inheriting Abraham’s promise, there is neither Jew nor Greek — all ethnic groups may inherit. In Christ, even slaves can receive an inheritance from Abraham. In salvation, there is likewise no difference between male and female — all have equal rights to inherit the promise.

The Jews themselves even at the time of Jesus Christ here on earth have been surprised that any biblical command including the sacrifices and rituals had become unnecessary.

If God had given these laws, who could say that do away with them too? Today we look to the New Testament to see the reasons of God for doing away with Mosaic laws.

The New Testament quotes clearly why some of these Old Testament commands as being inadequate or in need of replacement (Matthew 5:31-37).

Now the New Testament it clearly declares the laws obsolete. In Acts 15, it is “the Law of Moses.” In 1 Corinthians 9:20, it is “the law.” In Galatians 3:17, it is “the law” that came 430 years after Abraham, that is, at the time of Moses. In Ephesians 2:15 it is “the law with its commandments and ordinances,” the law that separated Jews from Gentiles. In Hebrews 8:13 it is the Sinai covenant. Although various terms are used, there is a consistency in what is meant. The old law is being declared obsolete. it does not mean that the law package itself is i obsolete.

What is the New Testament explanation for this significant change in divinely given laws? It is the new change in covenants, or the agreements between God and humanity because of the death of Jesus Christ. Why should the death of Christ cause God-given laws to become outdated? The Bible gives a simple explanation: The law demanded a penalty for law-breaking, and Jesus Christ experienced the worst penalty of the law.. Christ brought a new covenant. The book of Hebrews makes this clear in chapters 7 to 10. Although the focus in Hebrews is on the ceremonial laws relevant to the priesthood, the conclusion is more broadly stated — it is the covenant itself that is obsolete (8:13). A new covenant has replaced the Sinai-Moses covenant. The new covenant has some similarities to the old, but it is a new covenant. Apostle Paul tells us that the Law of Moses was a temporary addition to the Abrahamic promises (Galatians 3:16-25). The Sinai covenant, which includes civil laws and ceremonial laws, was designed to come to an end when Christ came.. the laws there are no longer binding. The law brings penalties, not blessing. “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’”. The law is not a way to earn favor with God. It functions in the reverse way, since we all fall short of its demands. If we think we have to observe the Torah, if we want to be under the law, we will be under its condemnation. “No one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ The law is not based on faith; but on the contrary on one’s own good works. Law-keeping cannot earn us God’s favor. If we look to it, it can bring only a curse, since we all fall short. But even in the curse, there is good news — in the crucifixion of Christ: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’”.

Now the Idea of a Jewish State ruling the world had Become Obsolete when Jesus Christ himself the Messiah had declared my kingdom is not of this world.. John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence in itself now not a New one but has been a fact even the last 2000 years too.

Why Did Many Jewish Leaders did, do falsely Hate Jesus Christ and the Church? It is because really the New Covenant Makes the old Biblical Laws Obsolete.

Jewish hostility toward Jesus Christ and His church began long before the Jewish exiled from Israel in 70AD when Jesus taught that Jewish nationalism and commitment to the “oral law” (“traditions of men”) distorted the sole purpose of the written law (Torah) (Mark 7:1-20). He declared that Israel’s dominant religious leaders were not in the honest tradition of Moses, David, and the prophets, but were mainly servants of Satan (John 8:37-44).

Their “Judaism” depended on legal righteousness based in “oral law” (the “traditions of men”; see Mark 7:1-23) and “works” that artificially distinguished them from the Gentiles whom they regarded as ritualistically unclean. Adherents of this perspective believed falsely that their legal righteousness would assure them of the future Messiah’s approval when he appeared on the scene to cast off the Roman yoke and institute the false worldwide Jewish rule.

John the Baptist proclaimed the worthlessness of legalistic righteousness (Matthew 3:1-12),

Jesus declared that the legalistic righteousness of the Pharisees was pitted against the genuine law of God He had come to uphold.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17-20 NIV).

Instead of leading them toward fulfillment of the promises God had given Israel, the Jews legalistically based self-righteousness motivated them to reject and kill the Messiah and His followers (Matthew 21:23-46; John 8:42-59; Acts 4-5; 7-9; 12:1f; 13:42-51; 14:2-5; 14:19; 17-18; 24:5; 26:9-11; Galatians 1:11-16; 4:29; Philippians 3:5-7; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16).

Jesus called into question the meaning of the primary Jewish symbols—Sabbath, food taboos, ethnic identity, ancestral lands, and ultimately the Temple itself.

Is the Antichrist Jewish?

Is the Antichrist Jewish? Although there is no definitive answer, two Bible verses provide us with good reason to believe he will be. The first appears in the Book of Genesis when God prophesies the coming of Israel’s Messiah and Satan’s Antichrist.

“From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15 (NLT)

Later on, when Jacob is blessing his sons, he makes this prophecy about Dan:

“Dan will govern his people like any other tribe in Israel. He will be a snake beside the road, a poisonous viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so the rider is thrown off.” Genesis 49:16-17 (NLT)

This reference to a serpent striking a heel may indicate that the Antichrist will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan, but it isn’t certain and many reasonable people are divided on this issue.

In addition to this reference to the tribe of Dan, the Book of Daniel points out that the Antichrist will worship himself above all else:

“Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” Daniel 11:37 (KJV)

This passage is often referenced by those who believe the Antichrist will be of Jewish heritage. The fact that he will have no regard “for the God of his fathers” is viewed as a reference to the monotheistic God of the Jews. Adding further fuel to speculation that the Antichrist might be Jewish is the following passage from the Book of Revelation:

“Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, and he spoke with the voice of a dragon.” Revelation 13:11 (NLT)

This verse states that the Antichrist will “come up out of the earth,” a biblical phrase often associated with the promised land and the Jewish people. Throughout the Old Testament, the earth is used as a symbol for Israel, while the sea is used as a symbol for the Gentile peoples:

“And now in my vision I saw beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God.” Revelation 13:1 (NLT)

The verse above is a reference to the Antichrist’s kingdom, which as stated before, will be a revived form of the Roman Empire – thus emerging from among the Gentile people. But all the authority of this kingdom will be exercised by “the beast from the earth” referenced in Revelation 13:11:

“He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and those who belong to this world to worship the first beast, who death-wound had been healed.” Revelation 13:12 (NLT)

The first beast, whose “death-wound had been healed,” is the revived Roman Empire. The Book of Daniel clearly states that this world empire will re-emerge in the last days, thus becoming healed of its mortal wound. But the one who rules it will “come up out of the earth.” Could this be a reference to the Antichrist’s Jewish heritage?

Will the Jews Accept the Antichrist as Messiah?
All the speculation surrounding the Antichrist’s possible Jewish heritage lends itself to another question: Will the Jews accept the Antichrist as their Messiah? Many believe that the following statement by Jesus is really a prophecy that the Jewish people will accept the Antichrist as their Messiah:

“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” John 5:43 (KJV)

The Antichrist would have to be Jewish in order to be accepted by Israel as the Messiah. Many believe this scripture points to a specific person in the future who will “come in his own name” and be accepted as the Redeemer of Israel.

Conclusion
It is an absolute certainty that the Antichrist will arrive on the world scene as the ruler of a revived Roman empire. However, it is less certain whether or not he will be of actual Italian descent or some other ethnic background. Several scriptures offer the possibility that he could be Assyrian, Greek, or Jewish. But none of them offer us the definitive statement contained in Daniel 9:26.

So how do we rectify these seemingly contradictory prophecies concerning the Antichrist’s nationality? Is he Roman? Italian? Jewish? Assyrian? Greek? He doesn’t necessarily have to be exclusively one or another. He could be an Assyrian Jew born and raised in Italy, or any number of possible combinations. We don’t know for certain, but history indicates that each of these prophecies will be harmonized when the Antichrist finally appears.

Two thousand years ago, the seemingly contradictory prophecies of the first coming of the Messiah were all harmonized in the life of Jesus Christ who was a Nazarene born in Bethlehem who came out of Egypt. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see how this was possible, but for the Jewish scholars who lived before the birth and ministry of Jesus, these prophecies were a topic of intense debate. Would the Messiah come from Nazareth, Bethlehem, or Egypt? The answer, of course, was all three.

In similar fashion, a debate continues today in regard to the prophecies of the Antichrist and his national identity. But no matter how much we speculate on the ultimate meaning of the scriptures, we won’t know the absolute truth until God’s appointed time.
– See more at: http://www.inplainsite.org/html/the_antichrist_powerful_human.html#sthash.M2qv7WSX.dpuf

Galatians 3:
1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Ridiculous KJV Bible Corrections: Who is Yahweh?

 

Ridiculous KJV Bible Corrections: Who is Yahweh? by John Hinton, Ph.D. jhinton@post.harvard.edu

Ex 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

Ps 83:18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

Isa 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Isa 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

The above quoted verses are the four verses where the name of God is pronounced in the KJV (as well as the ASV, and a few other English versions).

There is a VERY FALSE popular movement to replace the name of God, Jehovah, with the name Yahweh. This is being pushed especially hard among those in the Identity and Christian patriot movements, and especially among the alternative news community prominent on the shortwave, which some Christians perceive of as being a source of more purer form of broadcasted Christianity. There are exceptions, but overall this is nonsense because the shortwave Christian broadcasts are frequently every bit as commercialized (just different products) and apostate as the “Christianity” that is broadcasted on TV.

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

This movement to alter God’s name with absolutely nothing that resembles scriptural, textual, or linguistic support, has misled huge numbers of Christians into denying the Bible and accepting the work of Bible-scoffing atheists who have dominated the academic field of biblical studies since the mid-nineteenth century. I even hear people who claim to be King James Bible supporters use this perversion of the name of God. If they deny what the KJV says about the name of God, then they do not believe the KJV is God’s word. In fact, they do not believe that the Hebrew Old Testament is God’s word either, because it clearly says Yehovah, which becomes Jehovah in English pronunciation, and pronounced He’ova in Spanish. If one can change that word simply on a whim, which is all the Yahweh spelling is, then they can deny the spelling of absolutely any other word in the entire Hebrew Bible. http://av1611.com/kjbp/ridiculous-kjv-bible-corrections/Yahweh-Jehova-YHVH.html

The Full Gospel

 

Do you know and preach the full Gospel even?

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/jesus-christ-is-god/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/now-about-money/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/about-the-hirelings-begging-for-money/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/going-on-with-god/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/the-gospel-of-our-lord-jesus-christ/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/some-of-them-lie-teach-doctrines-contrary-to-the-new-testament/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/gods-word-jesus-christ/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/love-one-another/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/god-jesus-christ-is-our-righteousness/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/holiness-jesus-christ-and-the-holy-spirit/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/the-big-difference-between-christianity-and-judaism/

http://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/if-you-are-a-christian-you-should-act-like-it/

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PERSONAL SUFFERINGS AN ESSENTIAL PART FOR EVERYONE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE?

   

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. 37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. 40  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41  He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42  And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

ARE PERSONAL SUFFERINGS AN ESSENTIAL PART FOR  EVERYONE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE? http://postedat.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/what-should-be-the-key-goal-in-ones-life-be/

  

I for one RIGHTFULLY STILL DO prefer to get the answer from God, his Word for a start.

I know also that many people can twist dishonestly the Bible to suit their own desires, hidden agendas too.

(Psalm 9:9 KJV)  The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

 

The  Bible seems to indicate that trials and tribulations are temporary for most people. Nor is a permanent sickness generally part of God’s will for everyone as well. Always read it and find out for yourrself.

(James 5:13 KJV)  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14   Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16    Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

MIND YOU IF YOU ARE LIKE MOST BAPTIIST I KNOW YOU ARE FALSELY TO PROUD TO CONFESS YOUR SINS ANYNORE..SO YOU NEGLECT THE LAST VERSE.

(James 5:11 KJV)  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

(Acts 9:31 KJV)  Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied

WAS APOSTLE PAUL’S SUFFERING TYPICAL OF WHAT MOST Christians NEED TO SUFFER? The Bible does not indicate this, rather it clearly says his suffering, BUFFETING,  was an exceptional case, his direct punishment for his past persecution of Christians.

(Rev 4:1 KJV)  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.

(Acts 9:16 KJV)  For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

3 Historically and Biblically speaking trials, tribulations persecutions have tend to increase the size of religious movements, ARE PART OF OUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH, PART OF THE PRUNING PROCESS,  have also increased one’s fear of God as well , caused holiness to develop further in their lives now too, BUT DO ALSO INCREASE OUR SPECIFIC PERSONAL ABILITY TO MINISTER TO OTHERS NEXT. http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/some-people-are-realy-lucky-they-experience-jesus/

(2 Cor 1:3 KJV)  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4    Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

1 Pet 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

1 Pet 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 10  Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 17  And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 9  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24  For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

(Mat 9:22 KJV)  But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

(Luke 8:48 KJV)  And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace..

(2 Cor 7:4 KJV)  Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

(2 Cor 7:6 KJV)  Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

(2 Cor 13:11 KJV)  Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

((1 Th 5:14 KJV)  Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

(2 Th 2:17 KJV)  Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

(Rom 8:18 KJV)  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

(2 Cor 1:5 KJV)  For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

(2 Cor 1:6 KJV)  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

(2 Cor 1:7 KJV)  And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

(Phil 3:10 KJV)  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

(Col 1:24 KJV)  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

(James 5:10 KJV)  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

(1 Pet 1:11 KJV)  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

(1 Pet 2:19 KJV)  For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

(1 Pet 4:13 KJV)  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

(1 Pet 5:1 KJV)  The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

Reality

 

(Rev 21:1 KJV)  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. 

 

(Rev 20:15 KJV)  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

(Mat 7:21 KJV)  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. 

 

 (Rev 20:12 KJV)  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13   And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

 

(Gal 6:7 KJV)  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.