greening of the church pt3

Yes, I do agree, we are called to be missional. You might, stress might, enjoy the book.

The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bibles Grand Narrative. Christopher J H Wright.

 

For clarification, are you saying God is now talking to you, when we all today are seen to Him to be Gentiles? If you are saying you are Israel, are you also saying you are under the Law that God gave to His people?

 

Iconoclast you are right. I believe there is an Apostle to the Gentile, and He tells us He does have a dispensational gospel that was revealed to Him by Jesus Christ from heaven. Are we to discard scripture that will not fit into our belief?

Should we refuse to believe Saint Ananias (Acts 9:10-20)?

And by all means let's not forget II Peter 3:15 (and on), "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;"

Better put… as all today are considered Gentiles, and proselysation still goes on. We have choice in this matter. What scripture have you to verify, without contradiction, that Peter (before Acts 10) ever preached to a Gentile, or anyone else the Gospel of remission of sins through faith? How do you reconcile Acts 2:38, the Gospel of the Circumcised that you must repent and be water baptized for the remission of your sins. Can we not look around us and see there are those that do believe this necessary to be in the Kingdom that was (and still is) at hand? Did Peter know the Gospel of the Body of Christ before Christ Jesus revealed it to someone? Where in scripture can you find out about the Body of Christ? Who explains it to us now, and to those at that time?

Peter tells us that Paul has wisdom no other man had. Was any other Apostle, beside Paul allowed to tell us about the '"Body of Christ", the Rapture, or there is another Gospel than this, yet it is not another Gospel. James, Peter, John and the others in Jerusalem shook hands with Paul and Barnabas from the Christian church in Antioch, that they would only go to the circumcised, as we are told in Acts 15, and Galatians 2.

Since the New is now available shouldn't we harmonize scripture and understand what Paul is saying? Aren't we told the One New Man includes both Israel and the Gentile? Does man know best and say God justifies the Jew, and the heathen in the same way? I believe what His Word says. Your doctrine contradicts Romans 3:29-31, "Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30. Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."

But doesn't the above scripture prove you wrong? How can you live, as you understand, under the Ten Commandments in the New Covenant? People lived under the Ten Commandments in the OLD Covenant. We do not live UNDER, but establish the law. If we are in the Body of Christ already, are we not Above the Law, in the New Man? We are already there with Him. There are some who choose to be in the Heavenlies with Him, and some who choose to be on the earth when Heaven comes down to earth So God can be (and we in Jesus Christ) with His Bride. This is in prophecy as we see in Revelation, chapter 2.

By what you say, I can identify on what foundation you are trying to lay on the foundation of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God; and the Lamb (Jesus) said He only came for HIS PEOPLE, those that believe they are UNDER THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, which you say you subscribe to. This is the foundation that Peter was laying down. For those that live under the Ten Commandments, are they not to observe the Sabbath day to keep it Holy? Do the vast majority of Baptists that say they live UNDER the Ten Commandments keep the Sabbath?

I do appreciate your offer for help to understand what a saved one that believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, showing what He believes. Being a Berean as I study the Bible, I find the input, and understanding of what God tells me to be of more urgent reading. May I please refer you back to His Word, which can be correctly interpreted when He will bring together, what He has divided, in order for us to Study to make Ourselves Approved in Christ Jesus? I walked the path (about 60 years) of contradictions that you are now on. I decided I had rather be in the Body of Christ, than to be with Israel when they go marching into that Kingdom that is still at hand.

 

Appreciate your reply Iconoclast. I like you have other functions to attend to, but going to work is not one of them, except when Mrs. ituttut (to me) tells me to do something useful for a change. I've been retired for over 26 years, but not always on the computer. It is another DO which is not listed on my Honey Do List.

Agree, as we can see in Ephesians 3:9

Don't mean this to be preaching, but what I see. Peter was not taught the dispensational gospel that was given to Paul. We know Peter did not understand what all the vision encompassed. We know after preaching to these heathen, the Gospel to the uncircumcised, Peter and those others of the apostolic church were amazed. They did not understand for Jesus had already began to reveal to Paul only, the understanding of the Grace of God, that Now did away with Man having any Work to do in order to Please God. Just as God was the first to shed blood for man, so did He do it again, but this time It Was His own everlasting blood.

Christ gave to Paul His Gospel to the Gentile, just as He, God had given to Moses the Law and Ordinances that the circumcised were to live by. Both of these Gospels, which are not other Gospels, came from the say source. God is the One that Justifies, and we are told exactly how He Justified His People, and how He justifies the Gentile.

Peter was ordered to go, and he obeyed without understanding, just like Noah, and Abram. We know God put the words into Peter's mouth, and had Peter speak the correct words to the Gentile Cornelius, and his household. Then God stopped Peter's tongue after he had given the Gospel to the Gentile, which Peter, any Apostle, Jesus Christ while on earth, John the Baptist, or any other seed of Abraham had ever done.

Before Damascus Road, after the Covenant began, first one had to be circumcised (including their proselytes), blood sacrifices, the Law of the Ten Commandments they are to live under. Then live under the Laws of Moses, and understand there are over 600 such made to apply to the Jews, and in these ordinances come Water Baptism, that is necessary, and peculiar to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God never asked anyone else to make covenant with Him, or keep the Laws and ordinances they lived under. Was there not a secret shown to us, beginning on Damascus Road?

Just as God had Abram get away from his country, and family, so He also did with Saul/Paul. Moses was taught about an earthly everlasting life for His People, and Paul was given the Son of the Father, heavenly life of His Body.

I see you will have more to say, so I'll stop here before trying to figure out all that you may wish to discuss. We may wish to take a journey together to discuss what we find concerning this man Christ Jesus hand picked, and commissioned to go to BOTH THE Gentile, and The Jew, but to the Jew First we find out.

God knew His stiff-necked people would refuse Messiah, so He does as He says way in the past. "I'll make you jealous", He says. They broke the very first Law He gave to the People that He Chose for Himself for wife. She went whoring after other God's, worshiping of Idols. They were warned by God who said in so many words, don't mess around on me,Exodus 34:14, and others.

 

Number 1 due to length

Sure does. And if you allow, I will explain.

I believe what my Apostle tells me about the Body of Christ. "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together",Romans 8:17.

Didn't the branch (nation of Israel), break off? Won't another Nation/s of Gentiles be grafted in, and then so will Israel then be engrafted (BACK IN), just as James says? Peter tells his people the same thing in different words as to show they can now be saved just like the Gentile, i.e. the Nation of Israel, and then all Israel will be saved In That Day.

Isn't the Other Nation made up of all the Nations, excluding Israel? All the Nations will not be saved, but only those that believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those of the 12 Tribes (not those of today who are considered Gentiles) are justified differently than are we who choose to be in the Body of Christ with Him, and not on earth with Israel.

I see in your thinking it removes completely through faith, saying the Gentile is justified exactly like God's people who are justified by faith. Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 how all before the Cross, and a few years later on Damascus Road, God kept His promise that He would make His Wife Jealous.

Why couldn't Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and all the others be justified just like you and me? They DID NOT KNOW THE NAME OF GOD, THE WORD, while they lived. The other strike against them was JESUS HAD NOT YET SHED HIS EVERLASTING SAVING BLOOD. Yet all those that before Jesus came, and shed His Blood, did after all on that last swing to hit a home run. They are being held until that time by believing their Father in heaven. What ever God told these people to believe, they did, and they every one had to do their OWN WORK, for that is what God required of them.

Is not our salvation today just as we are told? There is no work we can do ourselves to please Him. All we have to do today is not try to save ourselves, or do works thinking it will help us to be saved, or continue to be saved. He says accept the gift I have given, my only begotten Son. He says just believe me when I say believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and through his name you are justified.

When it is all said and done, the building will fit together, but not until what is revealed to us by the Wolf (of Benjamin) in Ephesians chapter one with emphasis on verses 9 and 10.

Doesn't Paul say it is the same Gospel, yet another Gospel? Aren't we told through the faith of Jesus Christ that by "one Spirit are we all baptized into one body"; and through the spirit, we in The Body of Christ are builded together for an habitation of God. Are you contending that we are justified just as was David?

 

Number 2

Of course He did tell them, but Paul was not among those you make reference to. But you are wrong that Peter, James, John, and the other's chosen ever ventured out of the confines of Israel's territory, until sometime after Acts chapter 8? All they had to offer to anyone was the Great Commission, and we know Acts 2:38 is included in that Great Commission. I just cannot bring myself to believe one is to receive remission of sins by being water baptized of one that had been filled with the Holy Ghost; and then (or afterwards) one has to receive remission of sins as found in Roman 3:19-26. I have faith that it is His Blood that God has justified me.

Do you realize that Paul was carrying that message to the world, that is Paul, just as you say did go first into the Synagogues and preached to those of Is4ael.We can see in Acts 15 where Peter had turned over the Headship of the dieing Jerusalem church to that certain James. James tells us at the time he wrote his book, He was still of the Grace of God, and is of Works iand Law. If we wish to be proselytes, then bay all means stick with James. I have chosen to be in The Body of Christ, as a Gentile. There is One Body, and One Spirit, and One calling of our Hope. One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism, and there is One God and Father of all, above all, and through all, as well as in all. But we accept our Grace according to the measure of the Gift of Christ.

However we know the Apostles never left Jerusalem, or the confines of Judea. Not until sometime after Acts 8. The Apostles in Jerusalem could not carry out the Great Commission for scripture says to the JEW FIRST. The House of Israel still did not accept Messiah, so this Gospel of the Kingdom is at Hand still waits today.

So Saul/Paul did at first go to the Jew, and then to the Gentile. Paul says he is a Jew to the Jew, and with the Wisdom, and Knowledge that was given to him from heaven, he preached in the synagogues to those that did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Those of the Jerusalem church stayed where they were told to stay, and preach Acts 2:28 to them, hoping they of Judah (not both Jew and Gentile) would accept The Son of God by faith, as we know they still went to the Temple, obeyed the Law and Ordinances, continuing to make blood sacrifice. Paul had a different gospel to the gentile, a different circumcision for the Gentile.

The Jew heard Paul, and what He preached to the Gentile. We see this in Acts 21, when he became a Jew as requested by James. Paul is a Jew and went as far as God would let him. But there is something we should take notice of. God would not let This Jew that is the Apostle to the Gentile do. God did not allow Paul to make a blood sacrifice.

Did you notice that Paul is not there? Have you determined that All Israel accepted Messiah, and the Kingdom came, and all Gentiles will be servants of God's very own people? Isn't that really what you are saying? Why do some Christians that will not go to the Lake of Fire, wish to chance going through the tribulation? Can they be grabbed up by our Lord to be with Him before the Great Tribulation comes to His People as promised?

I did straddle for many years, wondering such things as, will I be here in the Tribulation to Pray Our Father which art in heaven … Give us this day our daily Bread … deliver us from evil. Or should I believe I would be raptured in my new Body while the claim jumper does what he destined to do?

 

number 3

Then you must believe the gospel the gospel of The Kingdom is at hand was promised to the Gentile, and also the Jew? I don't believe scripture will bear this out. The Gentile can be a proselyte at that time, but never come to God on their own. These heathen accepted to be the servants of God's people, are relegated to be in the Outer Court of the Temple, i.e. until He says differently.

I have never said anything different.

Isn't that what I said? That Kingdom still has not come.

Not sure what you are saying. Acts and all after is just hogwash?

Do we have free will to choose where you will to be on the earth with God's people, or can we be with Jesus Christ, as they come to worship Him?

They were not worthy (rulers) while Jesus was on earth, and neither were they after Pentecost. God then revealves His secret that He had hid.

I believe every verse you have quoted, but I know WHO is my Sabbath. Weren't the Sabbath Days a Shadow of Christ? John 9:16 tells us "Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them." Did not Jesus do all of the Works, and fulfilled the Law? Did He then REST. Our Works and a keeping of The Law, or any Law never saved anybody. Could anyone really REST from His Work?

Paul wrote a Book to His People, and not to any Gentile, unless they wish to be a proselyte into that religion, which is the religion of the Circumcised. My Sabbath rest is always in me, not some day I try to keep, for I was never told to do so. We are told the Sabbath is made for man. He rested from His creation on the seventh day, and He gave it to man for a rest, if they saw fit to do so. But to His People He told them to keep that Seventh Day Holy, and also commanded them to also keep Other High Holy Sabbath Days. He never gave to me any such instructions, for I am not one of the off spring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some wish to observe Days, months or times; and I don't believe Christmas or Easter are Holy Days, for this is error on the part of man who came up with these to please the World.

A case can be made I known for a spiritual Israel for Gentiles today, but I don't believe that is the Mystery. I see the first invite to His people for the marriage of the Lamb to His sheep, but they did not come. Then we see the second invitation (after blood is shed), and all is now ready at Pentecost. But again the rulers refused the offer. The Great Commission could not be fulfilled, so what had been hidden from man happened. It all began on Damascus Road.

 

Part 1 due to length

Then they all new the Word would become flesh? And they also knew His name would be Jesus? I can't bring myself to believe this, as scripture shows otherwise.

He told them only what He wished them to know. No more and no less. Able believed God, just as did Noah. When we believe what He tells us, as we live, then we will find Grace in the Eyes of The Lord.

Did Jacob believe God? He asked the Lord what His name was. Did He tell Jacob?

Did Moses believe God? He asked His name. I Am That I Am came the answer.

Did Samson's dad believe God? Did he ask His name? Was it reveled to Manoah?


And The Word became flesh, as you know. Our Lord God was born to Mary, and she was told by the Angel to name The Word of God, as a man, Jesus.

Were the angels predestined to be angels? Did they have free will? Are we predestined, and do we have free will?

Don't mean to be preaching, just endeavoring to make my position clear. Can, and did God divide, or was it someone else who in the beginning divided the heavens from the earth? Are our days made up of darkness, and light? Are there divisions of the seasons, and months separated from each other? The Bible reveals separating, or dividing from the beginning to the end of time. Did He divide unto himself a people of His own, from all others of the world? I see, and do take the position these things are so.

There are still mysteries untold, but we know God revealed, when He was ready to do so, certain things He had never told any man. And I believe scripture tells us angels are men. So nobody knew what Jesus Christ revealed to Paul, as we can see in Ephesians 3. And I say again, Peter says one should understand what Paul tells us.

This is how I see, acknowledge and proclaim in His Word. He divided out Saul/Paul from all the other Apostles for a purpose. Just as He parted the waters of the Red Sea, so He did with Prophecy. Prophecy stands behind us today, but awaits all others when we in the Body of Christ are taken up. Then all left, and to be born will be in prophecy that had been divided, but brought back together again. Since time began, and until it ends, there must of necessity be divisions.

 

Part 2

Yes, and we can see in verse 21 to whom He is speaking. The Rulers of Israel, National Israel would not repent, nor fit to be water baptized. Those filled with the Holy Ghost in those days actually knew whether those of Israel who were commanded to Repent and be Water Baptized should be water baptized. Two of the most powerful sects in the hierarchy of Israel were seen for what they were by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:7)

This is a very good place for one to see that the Holy Spirit had Matthew report what Jesus said, and then in other Gospels, which He divided from Matthew. He divided in order for us to study, study, and study some more, until we learn to bring together what He divided. The work we do, what ever that may be will follow us.

Some find one thing, and some something else. This is evident for you and I see differently. You can see from my signature, I have heavily studied the Epistle to the Galatians, as well as Acts, and all of the Epistles of Paul, ending in Hebrews. But before this I studied more diligently the other parts of the Bible. I consider these, beginning in Acts 9, to be the FIRST WORDS OF Jesus Christ from heaven. Not until we begin our journey through Acts can we find The Body of Christ, or through faith justification for the uncircumcised; neither the Rapture of those that died in the Body of Christ, and then we alive immediately after them.

I find the Kingdom of God is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? We are all in the Kingdom of God the Father, but are there not Kingdoms, in His Kingdom? Was the earthly Kingdom of David given to His flock?

I believe God preserved for the Body of Christ His Nation of Gentiles (including both Jew and Gentile), we of today. Scripture tells us we are baptized without hands by the Holy Spirit, and He seals us in. This Nation is His Kingdom. This is what I see, but you see the Kingdom that you wish to be in. I don't wish to put words into your mouth, but this is what I see in your post/s. This indicates to me you have made a good choice, for it fits your belief.

Are you saying the tribulation is past, or the Kingdom that was at hand still going on these many, many years? Everyone is still dying, Satan is still on the loose, and so the evil remains with us today, while we live.

Scripture tells me Christ Jesus revealed to Paul that those which are in the Body of Christ will be caught up to Him in the air, and those that have died, who chose to be in His Body, will be resurrected suddenly, and quickly, right before He snatches us up to HIM. Then I see the prophecy Kingdom will be allowed to continue.

I can only assume you believe Paul is talking to you as He addresses the Hebrew, or as you have quoted above the people of god. Paul is talking to the Jew, and their proselytes. This is not directed to any that are in the Body of Christ that are justified through faith alone.

Acts 11:15 indicates to me, Cornelius is in the Body of Christ, and was justified as is the Gentile, and that is through faith Justification. But we know Cornelius was first a proselyte to the Jewish faith. So doesn't it make sense that he, a Gentile can now also receive the Holy Ghost, just like the Jew did, at that time? He was also water baptized and is in the Body of Christ's Kingdom that He, Jesus, gave to His Apostles.

Peter was sent to Cornelius, and not Paul who tells us in Ephesians 2:5, 5, "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved " Today, I believe we can be with Christ, together with Him. The Grace of God justifies us through faith of Jesus Christ. If we were dead in our sins, then that means we are not proselytes like Cornelius.

The reference you give of One New Man we find in Ephesians 2:15 only proves my point that a division still exists. Does not in that verse inform us, without equivocation that the Law, and the Ordinances that were only given to His Covenant People, those of all Israel, has been abolished? Also scripture tells us those requirements are now dead in this dispensation. Any way you look at this truth means we are to believe what God tells us as we live. I see the Law, the covenant commandments, and their ordinances were nailed to the Cross. Isn't this the way Peter, and the others were justified by faith? Don't we see James, Jesus' half brother, continued in his salvation as a Jew? Isn't it possible today for a Jew, or their proselytes to continue with their Law, and Ordinances if they wish?

James came to believe in the son of His mother, then accepting Jesus as the SON of GOD? The Son of God is the Lamb of God, and Jesus said He came for His sheep, and no one else. James believed this, but realized, sometime after Damascus Road, the Great Commission was not to be preached to Gentile. But it was preached, and some accepted the Great Commission still, and we know Paul also preached this to Israel. We know James did not preach to the Gentile, for he was not appointed to do so. James knew the Gentile was justified differently than the Jew.

How do we know there is still a division of the True Jew of the circumcision fleshly National gospel, and the personal bloodless individual gospel? Romans 3:30, "Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith." This leds me to believe the two justifications still exist. So then I believe in the Body of Christ, all can choose, in our free will, the Kingdom we want to be in.

 

Part 1

Missed this one Iconoclast. Not a lot to tell. Just a layman, and a student of the Bible. We all plagiarize, as we are a product of what we have heard, and read. However I also believe the Gospels are progressive allowing for individual revelations are there for us to discover.

Retired from Sales/Marketing. Have not retired from being a Student of His Word, and presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ from heaven as He permits. I am not a linguist, and certainly not expert of the language of Hebrew, Greek, Latin or any other. I know enough for my purposes; however I speaka the English. I believe I could learn German should I put my mind to it, as of German descent, as well as English, Welsh, Scotch. Some think I may have Italian blood, as I do become animated at times.

What I believe started in the Baptist denomination, and then information from the rest of Protestants, as well as Catholic. More insight obtained of Back to the Bible, Through the Bible, The Christian Jew Foundation, and Berean Bible Society. These last four to either deep understanding the Jew, or into grace, or wider scope than defined religions of today.

One thing leads to another. There were some hearings, or readings I completely dismissed on the way. The greatest sermons, truths I have found to be in the Bible. All of the above pointed me to the Bible to confirm; The last I accessed was the Berean Bible Society which study urges one to try not to interpret, but allow the Bible to interpret what God has given us to study. I have found this can be done when one finally comes to realize that God knows all about what comes under the heading of Math. I believe He really knows all about Division, as He shows us, and really great on all the rest also.

Yes, God is long suffering, and the Kingdom that was at hand was being shown to them in reality. The Nation of Israel still refusing what God promised His people. I believe God showed to Peter first the Keyes Peter had only applied to the Nation, but now the proselytes could build on the foundation, which Peter was laying on the foundation of Jesus Christ. And I do believe at this particular time Saul was still named Saul. However at this same time Saul was being taught all about the Body of Christ with the commission to spread it all over the world, for as we know all their Laws and Ordinances will no longer good enough. We are now to worship In Spirit, and not by sight, or of the hands of any man. Through the preaching of Paul, we can find the Wisdom Peter tells us Paul has.

Ho! Ha! Ha! Does your lol "mean lots of luck", or "laugh out loud"? Did you happen to notice Damascus Road is future, and our Lord Jesus Christ will then reveal what He had hidden from man? Jesus told them all that He could, and no more. Can we possibly follow Jesus Christ to heaven in these bodies? Doesn't He say He only came for HIS sheep? The Heathen is Not His Sheep. He, while on earth really meant what He said. I do believe He knew what His purpose was, at that time.