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Tackling Tradition 72: Love Your Neighbor!

From time to time, members of the chattering class will accuse Christians of hypocrisy by taking in money for themselves first then others.   That’s because there are people in the pews who believe churches are to help the needy among their own members first & then themselves. The Bible itself teaches the exact opposite.   How so?  God’s moral law is both individual & corporate in application.  But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34–40, ESV)  9 For the commandments, “You s...
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Tackling Tradition: Why Doesn’t God Save Everyone?

The question is better phrased, “Why does God save everyone before they cross over?”   The simplest straightforward answer is probably that God is writing the greatest story ever told & we are all characters in it.   We are created to have forever life, & the creation & humanity are all in our infancy compared to where we will be centuries upon centuries from now.   In order for that story to unfold correctly the way the LORD wants it to, certain things must happen in a particular order.   Each and every event has been meticulously timed.  Therefore, some of us are saved prior to crossing over & others after. Acts 24 clearly states that there is a resurrection of the Just and the Unjust.   Acts 24:14–15 (ESV): …I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust....
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Tackling Tradition 67: Apotheosis & Proverbs 30:1 - 6

  The Words of Agur 30  The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man declares, I am weary, O God;      I am weary, O God, and worn out. 2  Surely I am too stupid to be a man.      I have not the understanding of a man. 3  I have not learned wisdom,      nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. 4  Who has ascended to heaven and come down?      Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?      Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name?      Surely you know! Some people think that this text means that it is impossible for man to literally be taken up to heaven from the Earth, as if God is, through his mouthpiece, Agur (Gatherer of Wisdom)    ben Jakeh (Son of Obedience, Piety, Blameless),    precluding the possibility of Yeshua’s corpor...
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Tackling Tradition 66 - Simon & Cephas in Luke 24 & 1 Corinthians 15

To whom is Paul referring in 1 Corinthians 15:5?      Is it Peter or someone else?     and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ( 1 Corinthians 15:5 , ESV) But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.  ( Luke 24:12 , ESV) saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”  ( Luke 24:34 , ESV) Most people believe that 1 Corinthians 15:5 is referring to Peter, based on their understanding that John calls Peter “Cephas” in John 1:42. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.  41  He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).  42  He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).  ( John 1:40–42 , ESV) —-But ther...
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THAT WHICH WAS & IS & IS TO COME

  The Thousand Years 20  Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit [ a ]  and a great chain.   2  And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,   3  and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. 4  Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.   5  The rest of the dead ...
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