Afterlife

Over the course of my military career, I’ve been around A LOT of health/fitness-conscious people. Many of them have become true believers in things like cross-fit, yoga, and other forms of exercise and it becomes a way of life for them. Similarly, I’ve seen all the passing diet and nutrition trends that seem to come on strong, make a big splash, then fade off into the twilight as quickly as they arrived. My observation is that younger people generally want to look good by putting in the work (sweat equity), while older people generally want to look good by changing what they eat. Either way, the goal is to look good and embody the epitome of health.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to stay healthy. There is nothing wrong with wanting to eat healthily. I mean, we only have this one body and we have to make it last as long as we can, I suppose. We should all strive to “do better” regarding our own personal health. No, what I’m referring to here are the people that obsess about their appearance. They obsess about wrinkles, body-fat percentage, balding, gray hair, or dress sizes.

The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

In the passage above, Moses makes the declarative statement that the age of a man’s life would be between 70 and 80 years. Interestingly, Moses (who himself lived to be 120 years old) wrote this o/a the 15th century B.C. Life spans since then have varied greatly with parts of the ancient world and the middle ages only seeing life spans reaching into the 30s and 40s. However, it is curious to note that we are now back at a time when this 70 to 80 years of life, seems to be the norm, not the exception. But let us make the case for 80 years as a standard. Heck, we could even make the case for 100 years or 1,000 years of age. What do any of these lifespans mean in comparison to eternity?

3. (usually plural) any of the aspects of life and thought that are considered to be timeless, esp. timeless and true

4. (Theology) theol the condition of timeless existence, believed by some to characterize the afterlife

Even the Antediluvian patriarch Methuselah, who lived to the great age of 969 years old, has now been dead for over 4,000 years. We could fit 12 of our 80-year lifespans into his 969 years, and even he would say his life went by in a flash. Not only that, but he has now been in the eternal realm (at least by our measure of time) four times longer than he lived. Thus, Methuselah will spend all of eternity in the glorious presence of God.

Paradoxically, we live in a world absolutely fixated on the here and now, and this has blinded many to the real nature of reality. True reality, is not what we can touch or see, but the world we can’t see. The writer of Hebrews noted that the Law, the Temple, and everything else, are but shadows of the real things already in heaven. The real reality is the eternal realm. It is the timeless state of being that exists outside of our universal fish tank.

Author’s Note: I often use our fish tank to demonstrate to my children just as we exist outside of the fish tank in our home, God exists outside of our universe, and yet, we are not far away. We can add or take water out. We can add food or move the fish to clean the tank. We can add in décor or take everything out. Furthermore, we can look in and see Goldie’s entire existence all at the same time.

God exists outside of our fish tank so to speak, and He can tweak or change things according to His purposes. However, even though God the Father exists in the realm eternal, He still has nearby and has full reach and depth into our existence through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, he can look and see everything, all at the same time and He has determined the length, breadth, width, height, and duration of our existence. Here are some Bible verses affirming the sovereignty of God’s universal rule:

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ Isaiah 46:10

And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding Daniel 2:21

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; Acts 17:26-27

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

But for some reason, we live in a topsy-turvy, upside-down, bizarro-world. You’d think, given the demonstrated certainty of death and the brief nature of our present existence, we would be hyper-focused on the world to come and not on the chaotic, ever-changing world we see crumbling before our very eyes.

And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:17

Life here on earth without God, is at best, elusive. We come into this world helpless, wholly dependent upon others, but naively thinking, this is the way it will always be. However, we grow, learn, and realize that we will not always have someone to hold our hand. We are expected to become increasingly independent and capable of doing things on our own.

As children, we let our imaginations run wild, thinking magic, fairies, and monsters exist, only to find out those things are real, but not at all as we imagined them to be. We are then thrust into a public education system that begins by ignoring the reality of God, and pummeling our senses with the government-approved propaganda stating we are nothing more than evolved, cosmic accidents with no rhyme or reason for existing.

Growing older, we learn to lower our expectations in people and situations, and we end up settling for the reality that if we are really lucky, we can find purpose and meaning in our life. We hold on to that until we realize that even purpose alone cannot satisfy the deep longings created by the complexity of the human soul. This sentiment was perhaps best expressed by the aged and gritty Rolling Stone philosopher who declared, I can’t get no satisfaction!

The life we currently live is as God declares, but a vapor; it is here today and gone tomorrow. Therefore, it is perplexing, to say the least, how much time people spend on their physical bodies now, which is in the very process of dying, and how little time people spend thinking about where they will go once their earthly existence comes to an end. The fact that we spend infinitely more time on the other side of that deathly vale than on this side of it, is the great lie people have bought into. The reality that people are so invested in their physical health that they will go to great lengths to extend their lives either medically or surgically, proves they don’t have a zeal for life, but rather, a tremendous fear of death.

The fear of death has been terrifying the unsaved for millennia. People of all cultures and ethnicities have gone on to create all sorts of elaborate rituals and schemes to obfuscate the reality of death or redefine the afterlife. The Vikings had Valhalla, to which they could only enter if they died heroically in battle. The Hindus taught reincarnation, in that death was not the end, only an endless cycle of death and rebirth. The Muslims believe in paradise and their arbitrary 72 virgins. Roman Catholicism teaches salvation through purgatory. Atheists believe in annihilationism. The Bible, however, declares that upon our last breath, and our last heartbeat, we enter into the realm eternal.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. Hebrews 9:27-28

Seeing as how death has been sort of a permanent mainstay in human history, it would seem to lend credence to the second half of the passage. We live. We die. We are judged by God. For the unbeliever, there is no recycling, no raucous, beer-laden Valhalla, no virgin-filled paradise, and no self-flagellating purgatory. It’s one and done, and then eternal separation from their Creator. For the believer, we are judged at the Bema Judgment, and then we spend the rest of eternity with our Creator.

While many of us feel as though we have done dreadfully little on account of the Gospel which saved us (in comparison to what we receive in return), we continue to work, to witness, and to be the kind of people Christ called us to be. We do this even if we do not see the fruits of our labor or the worldly rewards in this life. To this point, the writer of Hebrews, detailing the life of the faithful patriarchs, concluded that-

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 12:13-16

Admittedly, the Christian life here is hard. I would venture to say that being a Christian in the 21st century is even harder, and why, so many are turning from the faith. G.K. Chesterton once said, the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. Jesus promised us that in this life, we will have tribulation. He promised us that if we love Him more than the world, the world will hate us. In his epistles, the Apostle Paul taught us this world is not only, not our home, but is in fact, a battlefield. A battlefield in which we contend not with flesh and blood enemies, but dark, malevolent, and vicious spirits bent on only on our destruction.

While we take no personal trophies on our own accord, or in our own strength, we rest in the triumph Christ already wrought upon the cross some two thousand years ago. And though it seems like we are insignificant and unwanted in this world (we are), it is only a façade put on by our mortal enemy, Satan, who is still furious that in crucifying the Son of God, he sealed his own fate.

It is at that moment of death, in which, Satan has long delighted in taking those who have not yet claimed the free gift of salvation from Christ that separates our faith from any other. Paul writes that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). Instead of meeting sneering demons, who gleefully drag those poor souls into hell below, we know that at our own moment of death, we will be greeted by God’s holy angels, ready to escort us to our heavenly abode (Luke 16:22).

While in our flesh, we might delight in the much-deserved death of the wicked, God does not. He is longsuffering that all might come to salvation, and thus, has delayed Christ’s long-overdue victory lap all these centuries so that one more lost sheep might be brought back into the fold. Thus we contend with this fallen world, and are persecuted, discredited, censored, silenced, belittled, abused, and murdered as those who Christ describes in His parable of the Wedding Feast (Matt. 22).

Although God is longsuffering, His patience is not limitless. At some point (and we think soon), we will arrive at that fullness of times, when the full number of Gentiles are brought into the body of Christ (Rom. 11:25). It is at this point that even we, a generation of believers, will not taste even the bittersweet agony of death, but will instantly, put on immortality, and fly away to meet our loved ones and our Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:13-18, 1 Cor. 15:51-56).

Lastly, while we don’t fully understand everything going on in the backdrop of our lives, we can trust in our God to be faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). He is faithful because it is His nature to be, and He has promised us that we can trust in His plan of redemption. Therefore, death is not the end for us, but the very beginning, of an infinite, and glorious future (Eph. 2:4-7).

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:16-18

Well modern medecine and several good stents added another 15 years to my life because without them I would have been for sure because I was 95% blocked on the widow maker artery, so I again call B$.

I call BS to your BS.

Modern medicine may have prolonged your life, but, modern medicine has not added to your programmed DNA. Getting around your predefined age limit is only temporary, but you will still die at 'around' your scheduled time-limit. Stents and medicine and new discoveries and procedures are all good for not dying as per your DNA program, but,neither your nor I nor anybody that has ever lived, has ever beaten the DNA programmed into living creatures.

Heck, I'm pretty sure that I and a lot of people in my life and friends too, have benefited by modern medicine's help that helps us go a bit over the DNA programmed life-span, but, the DNA programs are still there. Living past the expected life-span does not mean that the programs are not there to try to end us, one life at a time.

Like I said, only a tiny percentage of people get to live past 100, and most die before 90. That's not BS! Look it up.

"1 John 2:27 As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false."

One of the most abused texts in the entire Bible, and which illustrates the need for such abusers of Holy Writ to be instructed, for it no more means that teachers are superfluous than "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all" means that believers are omniscient. (1 John 2:20)

To begin with it is a poor translation, for it better reads,

But the anointing [chrisma] which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you concerning [peri] all, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1 John 2:27)

Second, if this means what isolationist exegesis takes it to mean, then it is blatant contradiction to the rest of Scripture, one in particular being,

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11-13) Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. (Galatians 6:6)

Thus there must be a meaning to this other than believers never having any need for teachers (not that they always so, or that the latter cannot err). And here the context is (from the preceding verse),

These have I written unto you concerning [peri] them that seduce you. (1 John 2:26)

And which has to do with the essential Truth that these antichrist seducers deny and who thus forsook the Christian communion:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1 John 2:19)

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:21-22) For "the truth" immediately here is that Jesus is the Christ, "who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." (2 John 7)

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:22) Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. (1 John 2:24)

Here what is indicated is that of denial of core Truths which the Holy Spirit testifies to the heart from salvation even if the head does not understand it much. Which encompasses that Jesus is the Divine incarnated Christ, being is both. For in calling upon the Lord Jesus for salvation then a believer is implicitly ascribing divinity to the Son of God, for no one can give eternal life (besides possessing other unique attributes and titles of God). Thus a typical mark of a cult is the denial of the unique deity of Christ as one with the Father and Spirit, while these seducers . Along with this Thus Islam

And historically it is thought that "concerning them that seduce you" refers to those who denied that Christ was truly incarnated, but like as thought to be taught within Gnosticism and Docetism, was like a phantom who only appeared human but was not actually incarnated and thus would feel pain, and who was actually crucified and died and rose again. And that salvation was thru attaining secret esoteric knowledge which required gurus teaching such for attaining eternal life. Which is what "ye have no need that anyone teach you" would refer to, meaning not needing such to know what the Spirit witnesses to every believer, who has experienced the risen Christ by belief in the Truth of Scripture. These are essential ;

In contrast to which is Islam with its satanic "prophet" who said,

And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger — they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain. But Allah took him up unto Himself. Allah was ever Mighty, Wise. [Quran 4:157-158 Some other thoughts on this here.

Excellent teaching, Phil. I would add one little thing. Many of the new “Christians” will say that the old covenant was done away with. That is not what the book says. It says that the new is grafted in to the old, not REPLACED. As Paul said in Romans 11:24, “For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.” Funny how people believe that we have a whimsical god that changes his mind. HE is unchangeable. If you believe that he has done away with the old covenant, and replaced it with a new covenant, then what makes you think that he won’t do away with the new covenant and replace it with the ‘newer’ covenant? That is what Muslims believe. They believe that their covenant is the “Last Covenant”. Do Replacement theologists really want to be replaced by Muslims? The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob has never changed. And never will. In my humble opinion. He has done all in this world to preserve ‘free will’ and choice. Ours, not His.

"You posted a bunch of gobbledygook (argle-bargle). Please show me FROM THE BIBLE where the 7th day Sabbath was CHANGED to the first day (Sunday) AND where Christ or any apostle/disciple on record ever kept another day AS THE SABBATH. Also include where that day is blessed, hallowed, and sanctified by God. "

You posted a bunch of gobbledygook (argle-bargle) based on your definition. Please show me FROM THE BIBLE where the 7th day Sabbath commandment was reiterated like the other 9 for the NT church, AND where Christ or any apostle/disciple on record ever met together on any specific day other than the 1st day after the resurrection as a established NT church, as well as required keeping the everlasting covenant of circumcision for all believers and kept all the other everlasting statues. Also include where any other specific day is treated as sanctified by God by for the NT church.

. I am not interested in ANY traditional, post biblical, outside sources. I follow the bible and the bible only. Seems like you on’t.

Rather, you posted over 400 words of post biblical, outside sources. I follow the bible and the bible onlyas supreme. Seems like you don’t.

If you call them out Phil, they will attack you, but in reality, they are attacking God’s Spirit in you.

That is exactly what they’ve done over the years. I’m on their top 10 pariah list. I’ve been called nearly every name in the book. They love to call me a cultist, follower of Satan (they say he’s my father), false teacher, liar, and on and on. It doesn’t bother me one bit. I have the truth on my side and they don’t. They have been deceived. Am I changing any minds right now? Not sure. But if the end does come in their lifetime (and I think it will), they for sure will remember specific points that I’ve made and hopefully they will be saved (they will all be going through the tribulation and be exposed to the Mark of the Beast, AND THAT WILL REQUIRE A DECISION ON THEIR PART. Make the wrong decision and they will not be saved. That is a fact. Satan is no idiot and many billions will lose their salvation because they believed his lies.

I am referring to comments 53 and 54 and probably others that follow.
The point was that no authorization to worship on Sunday was explicitly made in scripture.

Well, we learn by command, by example and by implication.

1 Corinthians 16:2 Upon the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
Paul teaches to take a collection.

Acts 20:7 And upon the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
Here Paul meets with the brethren in Troas (I think) to take communion. Plus he preaches.

On the first day of the week, the churches took a collection, celebrated the Lord’s Supper and hear Paul preach. Sounds like a worship service to me. Did they sing songs? Did they pray? We might infer that. But the example belongs to “first day of the week.”

He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

You infer incorrectly...

https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=did+the+apostles+keep+sunday+to+honor+the+resurrection+aloha&d=4865042851890172&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=2TNZPDBB5PekXdfNmjIyz3vNc_ywX-Y7

The Acts of the Apostles

Here in the second book attributed to Luke, written about 80 - 90 A.D., we now come to one of the most frequently quoted verses to support Sunday sacredness:

Acts 20:7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

Clearly the disciples are meeting on Sunday, the first day of the week. It might even be presumed by some that by “breaking bread” they celebrated the Lord’s supper that Sunday. The question that needs to be asked though, is why were the disciples assembled on this day? What reason brought them together? In context, it will be seen that Paul was departing the next day on his journey to Jerusalem to be present during the Pentecost festival (v. 16). This gathering was a farewell assembly with Paul, the last day the people at Troas could meet with him, and that is why it lasted into the early morning hours. In fact Paul talked with them all through the night and then left in the morning at sunrise (v. 11).

Did Paul preach? Yes, without doubt, as verse 7 makes clear. Does that indicate the day was special, a holy day? No, they preached every day:

Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Did they celebrate the Lord’s supper? Perhaps, yet even if they did, as some maintain, there is no indication that that Sunday, or any Sunday, was being observed as a newly instituted weekly holy day to commemorate the resurrection. The breaking of bread did not indicate a special day of worship, or even that the Lord’s supper was being celebrated, as scripture tells us they met daily and broke bread from house to house:

Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat [food] with gladness and singleness of heart,

This indicates nothing more than eating what are called agape meals of fellowship, which are not necessarily connected with a formal worship service involving partaking in communion. Here is another example of breaking bread meaning a common meal:

Acts 27:33 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat [food], saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
Acts 27:34 Wherefore I pray you to take some meat [food]: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.
Acts 27:35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.

Now some will point to the celebration of Pentecost, found in Acts 2, and rightly claim that this occurred on a Sunday. Since that year the 16th of Nisan; the day of firstfruits; which was a type of the resurrection; fell on Sunday, Pentecost would also fall on Sunday. However, those gathered in the upper room on that day were gathered because it was Pentecost, not because it was Sunday:

Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Had they been gathered to observe the resurrection, wouldn’t Luke have told us that this was the new day of the week for all Christians to observe? But, you say, we do observe Pentecost always on a Sunday (Whitsunday). Perhaps you do, but not by anything directed in scripture. Pentecost, like Passover, is not tied to any particular week day. It is determined by the day of the month of the biblical lunar calendar, which means it does not always fall on Sunday. According to the scriptural calculation, Pentecost will most likely be on (or about) the 6th day of the third month, Sivan, which will only occasionally fall on the first day of the week. When the Catholic Church ruled in the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. that the resurrection (Easter) would always be observed on a Sunday (instead of the biblical 16 Nisan), this automatically resulted in Pentecost being observed only on a Sunday, but this change lacks any biblical support.

So, there is nothing in the book of Acts that leads us to believe that Sunday had been set aside as a weekly holy day of worship to honor the resurrection.

And here...

Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians

Continuing on to the next book of the New Testament, which according to Catholic scholars was written between 52 and 57 A.D., we find what is probably the single most quoted text used in an effort to “prove” Sunday worship:

1 Cor 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

Paul writes to the Corinthians that he is requesting money be saved for distribution to the needy saints in Jerusalem (v. 3). Paul is recommending that each person, on the first day of the week, lay aside and save by themselves a proportional amount of their income for the purpose of this offering. In that way, when Paul arrives the necessary funds will be already set aside and available.

1 Cor 16:3 And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.
1 Cor 16:4 And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me.

Upon meeting with Paul after his arrival at Corinth, the money that had been saved up would be given to the designated courier and taken to Jerusalem by Paul’s direction. Most notably, Paul is not instructing the Corinthians to observe Sunday, or even implying that funds are to be collected at a Sunday worship service. He is saying that on the first day of the week each person is to allocate and set aside at home (lay by him in store) a portion of their funds. There is no indication that the individual needed to leave home or go anywhere to do this.

It is also clear from the book of Acts, that Paul kept only the Sabbath day in Corinth, and not Sunday:

Acts 18:1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth;
Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
Acts 18:11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

That’s 72 Sabbaths that Paul preached in Corinth. There can be no question that Paul raised up a Sabbath keeping church in Corinth, a church that knew nothing of observing Sunday as a holy day. So, while many will point to 1 Corinthians 16:2 in the light of Tradition, and say that it refers to passing the collection plate during a Sunday service, in context, that is simply not indicated by the text.

That completes the entire testimony of the scriptures on the first day of the week. Note that not once in the Gospels, or indeed the whole of the New Testament, did Jesus Christ even mention the first day of the week, much less declare it the new day of rest to replace the Saturday Sabbath. And not once, according to the New Testament, were the Apostles gathered together in worship on a Sunday for the declared purpose of honoring the resurrection.

I’m happy to know that I’m saved and there’s not a thing you or the devil can do about it.

And the only one deceived is you.

Ironic how this passage fits you and your type to a “T”. Paul always knew how to deal with and treat the self-righteous zealots who pound their chest and point their own finger at themselves:

Galatians 6:11-16
11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

Done posting to you also, but you can keep trolling if it makes you happy. Keep showing us those fruits of the spirit that you have:

Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. You’re pretty good at the kindness and self-control parts ;)

BYE!

I have been called OTD a few times. (Of the Devil). Usually by those entrenched in the Church. I have had more than a few Seminary students tell me that they had no choice to believe what they were taught in Seminary, even though they knew it was wrong (that is why you should always use scripture to make your arguments). I suggest you go back to the root languages to make sure you understand what the Bible really says in the proper context. For instance, Born Again correctly translates as “Born from Above”. John 3:3 “Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” The Berean Literal Bible translates it as 3Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, except anyone be born from above,a he is not able to see the kingdom of God.” The Greek word used is “anothen”, which means “from above”. That is important, I think, it clarifies what Jesus was saying that you must be born from above from God because God’s Kingdom is a political realm created by Him to rule over His people. So, Jesus was stating the relationship in earthly terms so that they could understand, and at the same time revealing the connection between this world and the world to come. I personally prefer to use the Hebrew text for any translations in the Tanach (Torah (5 Books of Moses), the Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). I strongly suggest for what is called the Old Testament that you resource “The Israel Bible”, which is written by Jews with the translations into English: https://theisraelbible.com/ There is an excellent newly released Bible Translation written for the New Testament by a Professor named Dr. Brad H. Young, who recently retired from Oral Roberts University as an emeritus professor of Biblical Literature in Judeo-Christian Studies. He is an excellent translator and his bible is from the Hebrew Roots perspective. I have met Dr. Young on a few occasions. He learned under the tutelage of Dr. David Flusser of Hebrew University, and a collaborated with Dr. Roy Blizzard of the University of Texas at Austin. I have also studied the writings of these individuals and have learned much of what was originally written in Hebrew and the context involved. Dr. Young’s bible is “The Newer Testament” ISBN 978-1-7362270-0-8. Dr. Blizzard Co-wrote a book called “Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus” with Dr. David Bivin ISBN 1-560043-550-X, and Dr. Bivin wrote “New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus” ISBN 0-9749482-2-5. I have personally studied the Hebrew Roots and have studied Hebrew for 4 decades (including living in Israel for a bit and traveling there many times for study), and I am barely a student. One of the better Commentary’s that I use is “The KJV Parallel Bible Commentary” ISBN 0-8407-1848-9. I can tell by your comments that you also have studied much about what was actually written, and why. I offer some of the references strictly as a courtesy and as more reliable references. I have read them and highly recommend them all. I would call myself a “Berean”, although I am not associated with any formal Church or Synagogue. Good luck on your studies! John 8:31 So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33“We are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered. “We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?”…

When you are attacked, you might remember John 3:19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than
the Light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come
into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever practices the truth comes into the
Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.”

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