Posted on 04/10/2015 4:15:28 PM PDT by RnMomof7
from R.C. Sproul Mar 27, 2015 Category: Articles
Emil Brunner, the twentieth-century Swiss theologian and one of the fathers of neoorthodox theology, wrote a little book titled Truth as Encounter. His thesis was that when we study the things of God, we are not studying truth in the abstract. We want to understand theology not merely so that we can make an A on a theology exam. We want to understand the doctrine of God so that we can understand God, so that we can meet the living God in His Word and deepen our personal relationship with Him. But we cannot deepen a relationship with someone if we do not know anything about him. So, the propositions of Scripture are not an end in themselves but a means to an end. However, they are a necessary means to the end. Thus, to say Christianity is not about propositions but about relationships is to establish an extremely dangerous false dichotomy. It is to insult the Spirit of truth, whose propositions they are. These propositions should be our very meat and drink, for they define the Christian life.
Recently I read some letters to the editor of a Christian magazine. One of them disparaged Christian scholars with advanced degrees. The letter writer charged that such men would enjoy digging into word studies of Christ’s teachings in the ancient languages in order to demonstrate that He did not really say what He seems to say in our English Bibles. Obviously there was a negative attitude toward any serious study of the Word of God. Of course, there are scholars who are like this, who study a word in six different languages and still end up missing its meaning, but that does not mean we must not engage in any serious study of the Word of God lest we end up like these ungodly scholars. Another letter writer expressed the view that people who engage in the study of doctrine are not concerned about the pain people experience in this world. In my experience, however, it is virtually impossible to experience pain and not ask questions about truth. We all want to know the truth about suffering, and specifically, where is God in our pain. That is a theological concern. The answer comes to us from the Scriptures, which reveal the mind of God Himself through the agency of the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of truth. We cannot love God at all if we do not love His truth.
It is very sad to me that in today’s sophisticated Western culture, people are more familiar with the twelve signs of the Zodiac than with the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve Apostles. Our world likes to see itself as sophisticated and technological, but it remains filled with superstition. Christians are not immune to this. We, too, can succumb to the new-age desire for the power to manipulate our environment. We do not have to go as far as accepting the foolish idea that the courses of the stars determine our destinies, our prosperity, our achievements, and our successes. However, it is equally superstitious to equate our feelings and inclinations with the leading of the Holy Spirit. It seems so much more exciting to live with a freewheeling openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit rather than practicing the laborious discipline of mastering His Word. This is exceedingly dangerous ground. If we want to do the will of the Father, we need to study the Word of the Father—and leave the magic to the astrologers.
“It seems to me, as a Catholic, we need to turn our conscience over to God the Father and Jesus Christ... That’s it, no bible studies, no translations no nothing. It then becomes automatic.”
When you speak of conscience, though, you are speaking of right and wrong, and that makes God as our ultimate judicial system the focus. He is that, but so much more. Do we think of ourselves as consciences?
The Bible is a record of man’s relationship with God, and includes some actual encounters that people have had with Him. And God Himself directed the selecting of and writing about these encounters, which He had recorded in order to teach more people about Himself, and impart to us life-giving spiritual knowledge. From the Bible we know how we and the world came about, and how Satan tempted Eve by getting her to doubt God’s word, and so how sin came into the world. We also learn from it about God’s plan for man’s redemption, and a lot about the Lord Himself and His will for us. We learn that He is the God who sees our needs and provides for us, because when Abraham in obedience to Him was about to sacrifice his own son, the Lord stopped him and provided a ram in the place of Isaac; and how He commanded the judge Gideon to go against a great army with just hundreds of men so that He would get the glory for the victory, and the Israelites couldn’t say that they had saved themselves; and how the Lord gave the wicked king Ahab a victory over the Syrian army when Israel was also vastly outnumbered, because the Syrians had said of Him that He is God of the hills, but not God of the valleys. Those are just but a handful of things that the Bible reveals to us about God, which, if we don’t know them, there is an empty place in us that, due to our deep need for knowledge of God and the spiritual, gets filled with other things, which aren’t of God.
Yeah, Roman Catholic all the way.. The most amazing truth about reality is that no matter how many times that you deny it....it is still reality. Truth also is the same...you can deny it, try not to hear it, read a bunch of tripe which denies it, pretend that it does not exist, become convinced within yourself that you can change it, disagree with it,,hope that you are right, listen to those who reinterpret it, try to understand why your mind won't accept it, ask your mom about it, ANYTHING......but it doesn't matter one iota...the truth remains the truth...unchanged from the time that Christ established His church until the end of time....(He said so)
My Christ is the guy who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. Who rose again after three days and ascended into Heaven. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end.
I have no idea of who your Christ is....but mine is the real one....He was here, is still here in the Eucharist, and HE TOLD US SO.
I’m sorry but I failed to see the gospel in your post of who your Jesus is. Since it is the gospel that saves, please let me know if you just accidentally left it out.
Whoops...well, the Catholic church gave us ALL of the gospels...without them we would have no idea at all of who Jesus was...the Jews certainly wouldn't have told us and there was no one else around. You can pick and choose which of the Gospels answers your questions, and if you can't figure it out from there, just consult ANY Catholic theologen because ONLY the Catholic church has the authority, FROM CHRIST, to interpret scripture....they wrote it, they interpret it...pretty simple when you think about it!!!
No it really isn’t “that simple”. Just because you believe that Christ died, was buried, and rose again the third day, that does not mean you believe the gospel that saves. It’s WHY He died that makes a difference in which “Christ” you believe in and follow for your salvation. As for “picking and choosing” which of the Gospels”, that would not be a very wise thing to do in this age of the grace of God. Paul says it is his gospel that God will use to judge the secrets of men by Christ. You’ll find this in Romans.
Oh yeah, I see it now...thanks Catholics for keeping the Bible safe for 2,015 years so that everybody could read it.....Good grief, nowDys the thing is written in English, you don't even have to decipher koine Greek, Hebrew, Latin...nothing...just read what it says and it isn't real hard to understand...stop trying to make something out of nothing...the Catholic church is it...all the others are merely wannabees...By the way, if you were validly Baptized.....you are a Catholic, come back home.
Really.
Who needs God when they have the Catholic church to take care of everything for us?
The Catholic Church has given us a gospel..
Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday...
Problem is Paul taught Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits..
One is according to the scriptures (the old testament ones)
And the other is according to the catholic church’s catechism..
Satan is subtle.
Another gospel may lead one to another Jesus.
And if scripture didn’t warn about false Christ’s, false gospels and false teachers we wouldn’t have to be on the lookout..
Saved by grace through faith gets trickier if one may have faith in the wrong Jesus and wrong gospel.
Good grief, what on Earth does that mean????
The roman Jesus born on December 25
Or the Hebrew Jesus born on a New Moon Day, one of His biblical appointed days?
The roman Jesus killed on Good Friday
Or the Hebrew Jesus slain as the Lamb on Passover, another appointed days He taught Israel?
The roman Jesus raised on easter Sunday
Or the Hebrew Jesus raised on the Feast of First Fruits, yet Another appointed day He taught Israel?
The roman Jesus’ story can’t be told without the catholic catechism.
There is a difference..
‘Anti’ doesn’t have to mean ‘opposed’ like it is today.
Anti can also mean ‘instead of’, ‘in place of’, substitute.
Makes the use of the greek word psuedo when detailing pseudo christs, pseudo prophets..
Apostle Paul spent no time teaching good friday, holy Saturday , easter Sunday.
He did teach passover lamb, unleavened bread, first fruits..
A subtle difference..
If Satan wasn’t described when dealing with eve as ‘subtle’, we wouldnt have much to test and prove in these end times..
Could a master counterfeiter pull off an identity theft of biblical proportions and counterfeit the genuine savior?
And turn him into a roman deity with a roman birthday and Roman holy days that only counterfeit what scripture actually records?
Rome’s Jesus story can only be told with Rome’s premises. Their catechism..
I suspect catholics and protestants dont think there can be another Jesus.
Scripture says that there can be. 2 Cor 11:4..
As His church progressed, they chose certain days to celebrate certain happenings...was Christ circumcised on Jan. 1st...chances are pretty great that there ws only a 1/365th chance of that, but we celebrate the occasion, not necessarily the date...who cares exactly what day it happened on...
The new moon days, sabbaths and feasts are the appointed days He taught Israel as days for ‘worship’.
Interestingly, the Savior’s major life events ( birth, circumcision, dedication in the temple , baptism, death, burial, resurrection) occurred on either a new moon, weekly sabbath, annual sabbath or feast.
And with study, everything Rome teaches about ‘Jesus’ is just a sad counterfeit for the genuine WORD become flesh.
Those days aren’t just arbitrary days He taught Israel. They pointed to their King.... and His Kingdom..
Scripture tells us what His birthday is.. and it follows Torah, not Rome..
Does it matter?
Why do cashiers hold up money to the ‘light’?
Because some of the best counterfeits can be shown as counterfeit only when held up to the LIGHT.
Revelation 12 gives His birth sign... and it occurred on September 26 in 2014.. and it won’t be that next year. Nor was it that a couple thousand years ago..
But that sign every year is one of those new moons, Sabbaths or feasts.
We are saved by grace, through faith. What a dirty trick if the enemy has his own Jesus and we have to prove all things..
2,000 years of church history, written by some of the most dedicated men in history, studied by millions of scholars and now, you come up with astrological charts to define Christianity....O.K.
Neighbor, seeing an astronomical ( not astrological) sign in His sky when His Word say He ordained the moon and the stars is what a wiseman would have been in ancient days.psalms 8:3
They didn’t do it with all the technology we have today..
I saw that ‘sign’ with a computer application that could be downloaded for free to any ‘smart’ phone or computer.
You want to know something awesome? Before His plan was put to parchment, it was written in His sky.
And ancient civilizations , like Babylon, could see it and have their own story that looks so close to the real deal.
And when one studies His sky ( astronomy) even at an elementary level, with an understanding of His Word, it is a tremendous blessing.
I will write a little that may seem like astrology but you will be able to see how the entire bible is written up there and He sets it around His Feasts in the 1st and 7th months.
Now, one could draw the conclusion that the bible broad themes were copied from those signs or that those signs confirm the bible as His Truth.
A few to a couple thousand years ago, historians noted that Israel observe Passover when the sun was ‘in Aries’.
That sounds astrological.
But it means that their first month (at the spring equinox ), the sun was traveling through that particular group of stars. ( the bible calls it the Mazzaroth (Job 38:32- the world calls them constellations/zodiac)
Aries is defined in English terms as the Ram.
If one studies His Mazzaroth, if the Ram is the 1st one, the 7th (which would be the sign when Israel observes their 7th month feasts) is what the engligh world would call a scale or a balance.
A ram/lamb in the Jewish first month and the scale/balance in the 7th month have a prophetic image of the passover lamb and the day of atonement in the respective months Israel would have observed His Feasts.
The earth wobbles. And it has been wobbling for a while. That wobble causes what science calls the precession of the equinox.
Basic understanding is over time, the earth’s wobble makes those signs in the heavens appear to move.
So that the spring equinox is not located in the Ram sign up there anymore.
The sun is now in what the world calls Pisces at the equinox. ( and at the Jews’ 1st month)
Pisces is in the English , two fish. It looks like two fish.
Now, if we keep the same standard that Israel is to observe the Passover at the same time (near the spring equinox). the sign has changed in our day.
Today, Israel observes passover when the sun is located in the two fish.
Because of that, the 7th month Feasts aren’t observed when the sun moves into the scales.
They observe the fall feasts when the sun is in ‘the woman’.
(World calls it Virgo)
So, instead of the Ram/lamb and scale/balance, we now see it has changed to the Two Fish and the Woman.
You see a biblical pattern? Anything prophetic about the Savior turning them into ‘Fishers of men’ or the church/virgin bride?
I hope so. All those signs are up for anyone to see and observe.
All are not just random but ordained by Him who Created them..
There is more wobbling to do and a couple big wobbles of this earth and Israel will be observing His Feasts when the sun is located in what the world calls acquarius in the spring and Leo in the fall.
Aquarius in English would be the ‘water bearer’ and Leo in English is the Lion.
An outpouring of His Spirit (or wrath if you look negatively) and the return of the Lion of Judah.
All up there in His sky, centered around His Feasts. Before pen ever met parchment,
HalleluYah!
Satan counterfeit astrology is no match for His astronomy..
Maybe the millions of scholars accept so much that just isnt true. Like Christmas, good Friday and Easter to start with.a few things not found anywhere in His Word.
May He bless your study of His Word and His Creation.. and those signs in the Heavens He gave us for signs, appointed assemblies, days and years.
That is why I call today His 3rd day and the 25th day of His month instead of Woden’s day.
But each have a journey to take..
Why???
Not sure I follow the question...
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