Posted on 08/21/2015 8:42:12 AM PDT by LearsFool
sound doctrine
I’ve found that many things I believed when I became a Christian a changed my beliefs on when I actually studied them. Not all, but some. The two most dramatic:
1. My church made a big deal about believing the pre-trib rapture was biblical. I studied it and am now mid-trib (actually post-tribulation, pre-wrath)
2. Even before I became a Christian “everebody knows” that according to Christianity the fate of the lost is eternal suffering. I studied it and now believe the fate of the lost is the second death which is, in fact, death. The warning actually starts in Genesis before Adam eats the forbidden fruit.
I figure some other beliefs will change as I study them one by one.
One that I’m figuring out now is that there are two types of people, but really three:
1. Sheep
2. Goats
But really, the first is divided into two groups:
1a. Found Sheep (FS)
1b. Lost Sheep (LS)
The great commission is for the FS to preach to all non-FS’s so the LS’s can become FS’s. It means I no longer have a heart for the “lost” because the lost are the Goats. They are an irrelevance. And the LS will become FS, whether I am the FS that preaches to them or not, but I would love to be the one who does.
To be clear, it is not for me to judge who is a LS and who is a Goat. But I can share the word and let the person make their decision. I should not have to convince them. And it is a waste of time to try to convince a Goat.
The Jews in Jesus time and the church now are both 501c3 under the Romans than and the IRS now.
ping for later
I am not sure what you mean by “the second death which is, in fact, death”. Do you mean, gone obliterated not here anymore kind of death? Revelation 2 0 clearly states what that second death is. The cast in the lake of fire (the second death) are not obliterated from existence.
Not many people are able to set aside the things they’ve been taught, and accept only what they find in the Scriptures. I’m glad to hear that you’re studying hard, and comparing the things you’ve believed and been taught, against what the Bible says.
God will teach us if we will spend our time digging into what He has said. If we stick with His Word and that alone, how can we possible go wrong?
:-)
Some of their scriptures were carried forward and translated, some were not.
Some were forgotten, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
A few hundred years after Jesus died the heads of the Roman Empire and Church held international meetings to determine which bits were scripture and which were not. Their output was mostly translated to Latin and Greek.
About 1200 years later a new round of translations and editing took place, resulting in various versions of the Bible in other European languages. These differed in various ways, large and small, from previous versions.
The most famous English language was created under the direction of King James of England.
While he was sponsoring this new English language version of the Bible he was also very interested in witchcraft trials, and attended some in Scotland, which he was also King of. Per the standard bios "James personally supervised the torture of women accused of being witches. After 1599, his views became more sceptical.
How is your Hebrew, Aramaic and ancient Greek?
Yeah...The churches are not really literal lamp stands and the second death is not a literal lake of fire. We’re talking g Revelation here. :-)
I’ve been discussing/studying this for about four years now in person and on the web. I’m more steadfast in this belief than ever.
So, keep doing what I’m already doing, then? OK.
Not all things in Revelations are literal for sure. That is. It’s supported by other portions of Scripture. However, not a sticking point for me since I am not going there. :)
You believe the New Testament is true because you were taught to believe the New Testament is true.
Not all things in Revelations are literal for sure. That is. Its supported by other portions of Scripture. However, not a sticking point for me since I am not going there. :)+
It is an issue for me because I see the good news as telling non-believers that your life does not have to end at the physical death. Rather, you can live in eternity with your Creator! Simple. Very simple. And it reflects John 3:16, Genesis, etc. IOW, people believe not out of fear of some unimaginable torture, but out of DESIRE to accept the free gift. The important thing is for them to know the path to eternity.
And you know this how exactly?
Umm, what is it you’re doing?
While your article was completely non-specific as to the right thing Christians should be doing, I think I can be completely confident what I am doing is the right thing. Thanks for sharing!
The Pharisees get a bad rap in the NT, even worse than the occupying Romans overall. Regardless, they were the founders of what is today Orthodox Judaism.
I’ve always thought it interesting that when Jesus taught prayer via “Our Father...”, he taught a prayer that could as well be uttered by any Jew.
‘Avinu shebashamyim’ is mentioned several times in the Mishna, contemporaneous with early Christianity but a record of Jewish use that is much older.
Later use of the phrase in the Talmud would indicate no special Jewish view of the phrase as connected to Christianity, and it is used in the recent official prayer for the State of Israel.
If you’re sticking to the Scriptures, as opposed to coming up with your own ideas about what God wants, then by all means carry on, my friend! :-)
Many people start thinking they know what God wants better than He does, and start making up ways to worship Him that He never authorized, inventing church structures and offices He never set in place, and even modifying the gospel to get more people saved than He can (or so they think.) They’ll pay for their hubris, and take many souls into damnation with them. My aim is merely to repeat the Bible’s warnings against such things.
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