A summary of the Bible Hour presentation at the Christadelphian Hall, Blackpool Street, Burton-upon-Trent on Sunday 10th October 2010.
This blog uses Bible references. If you don’t have a Bible, you can find the Bible text online.
The Bible story is largely concerned with the Jews – God’s people and the ‘apple of his eye’ (Zechariah 2:8).
To be God’s people is a privilege and a responsibility. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 they are offered a choice: to obey and be blessed, or to disobey and be punished.
God repeatedly warns and pleads with his people through the Old Testament prophets. There are warnings of punishment, destruction and exile.
In the 7th Century BC, Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria destroyed the half-kingdom of Israel (see Isaiah 14); the other half-kingdom Judah was threatened, but it was delivered because of the faithfulness of its king and people. But Judah also slid downhill, and 200 years later Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon destroyed the kingdom (see the book of Daniel).
Jeremiah 25:11-14 contains a prophecy that Judah would suffer a 70-year captivity, then the exiles would return to their land. The books of Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah show how this was fulfilled.
By the time of Christ the Middle East was dominated by the Roman empire. The Jews were in their land, but subject to Rome. The gospel records (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) show that the Jews had once again become faithless and disobedient. Jesus prophesied the nation’s downfall (Matthew 24). This happened in 70 AD: the Jews revolted against the Romans, the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the Jews were expelled from Israel. The contemporary historian Josephus records how this was a ‘time of trouble such as there never was’.
Throughout history Deuteronomy 28 has come true in the experiences of the Jews throughout the world.
“The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” (Daniel 4:17) Difficult as it is to come to terms with, this principle is particularly seen in the history of the Jews. It explains the inexplicable things that happened to the Jews: God was at work!
The rise of Hitler to power in Germany in the 1930s was improbable. His survival of a number of assassination attempts was hailed as miraculous. Meanwhile Mussolini in Italy survived seven assassination attempts, which moved the Pope to declare that he must have divine protection. Hitler and Mussolini both died ignominiously in 1945, but only after they had inflicted immense suffering on the Jewish people.
The prophecies of Deuteronomy 28 were still coming true. Also with hindsight we can see that God was at work in another way – immediately after the second world war there was a flood of Jews out of Europe to their homeland. The Holocaust was a major factor in the establishment of the state of israel in 1948, in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy (e.g. Jeremiah 30:3, 32:36-38, 33:7).
God will never cast away his people (Jeremiah 31:35-37).
There are prophecies about the nation that are yet to be fulfilled. All the indications are that they will be fulfilled soon. Read Zechariah chapters 12 and 13.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Understanding God
A summary of the Bible Hour presentation at the Christadelphian Hall, Blackpool Street, Burton-upon-Trent on Sunday 26th September 2010.
Nobody can really understand God. He is the creator of the universe, we are puny transient creatures with limited minds. “There is no searching of his understanding.” (Isaiah 40:28)
But God has revealed himself to us in ways that we can understand. He wants us to take the trouble to understand him.
God has told us that one day the whole earth will be full of God’s glory (Numbers 14:21).
What is the glory of God? There are two aspects to God’s glory:
1. his moral glory – his character.
2. his physical glory.
These two aspects are each seen in Exodus 33 and 34. Moses asks to see God’s glory; God tells him no one can see his physical glory and live, but he hears a voice proclaiming God’s moral glory: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation.”
Psalm 19 shows both aspects of God’s glory: verses 1 to 6 describe the wonders of creation, and the following verses describe his wisdom.
God chose Israel as a nation to show forth his glory: “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)
This covenant was later opened out to include people of all races who are faithful (Galatians 3:28-29). There are those with whom God will make his covenant (e.g. Psalm 103:17-18), and those with whom God will not make his covenant (e.g. Psalm 50:16-23). God will make his covenant with those who are faithful and obedient.
Jeremiah 9:24: “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”
If we reflect the moral glory of God now (by following Christ), we can live in the hope of reflect reflecting his physical glory in the future, when Christ’s faithful are given immortality on his return. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Revelation 3:21)
Nobody can really understand God. He is the creator of the universe, we are puny transient creatures with limited minds. “There is no searching of his understanding.” (Isaiah 40:28)
But God has revealed himself to us in ways that we can understand. He wants us to take the trouble to understand him.
God has told us that one day the whole earth will be full of God’s glory (Numbers 14:21).
What is the glory of God? There are two aspects to God’s glory:
1. his moral glory – his character.
2. his physical glory.
These two aspects are each seen in Exodus 33 and 34. Moses asks to see God’s glory; God tells him no one can see his physical glory and live, but he hears a voice proclaiming God’s moral glory: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation.”
Psalm 19 shows both aspects of God’s glory: verses 1 to 6 describe the wonders of creation, and the following verses describe his wisdom.
God chose Israel as a nation to show forth his glory: “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)
This covenant was later opened out to include people of all races who are faithful (Galatians 3:28-29). There are those with whom God will make his covenant (e.g. Psalm 103:17-18), and those with whom God will not make his covenant (e.g. Psalm 50:16-23). God will make his covenant with those who are faithful and obedient.
Jeremiah 9:24: “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”
If we reflect the moral glory of God now (by following Christ), we can live in the hope of reflect reflecting his physical glory in the future, when Christ’s faithful are given immortality on his return. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Revelation 3:21)
Sunday, 12 September 2010
The meaning of the Last Supper
A summary of the Bible Hour presentation at the Christadelphian Hall, Blackpool Street, Burton-upon-Trent on Sunday 12th September 2010.
At the Last Supper before he was crucified, Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples. You can read of it in Matthew 26:26-29 and Luke 22:19-20.
Jesus’ body was given and his blood was poured out to seal a covenant between God and his people. A covenant is an agreement. Let’s look at two covenants in the Old Testament as examples:
Genesis 15:18, a covenant between God and Abraham where God promised to give the land of Israel to Abraham’s descendants.
Exodus 19, the covenant between God and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai where they promised to be his people and he promised to be their God.
Both these covenants were sealed by the blood of animal sacrifices.
The Old Testament is largely the story of how Israel failed to keep their side of the covenant. You would expect this to mean that God would respond by refusing to honour his side of the covenant, but he didn’t. In Jeremiah 31:31, God promises to make a new covenant – people might fail to keep their side of the covenant, but he will forgive and keep his side.
This new covenant was also sealed by the blood of a sacrifice. Not this time an animal, but the blood of God’s own son, whom he willingly gave to reconcile us to himself.
God offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life. We agree to be his people. We cannot live up to our side of the covenant, but God will accept our faith, by his grace. This is expressed in Romans 3:23-24: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we are justified freely by his grace through redemption in Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17 – as well as showing the covenant between God and his people, the bread and wine show the unity and fellowship between his people.
The evidence is that the first Christians shared the ‘communion’ bread and wine whenever they could as a sign of their faith and fellowship; soon it became established as a service that was held on the first day of the week.
At the Last Supper before he was crucified, Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples. You can read of it in Matthew 26:26-29 and Luke 22:19-20.
Jesus’ body was given and his blood was poured out to seal a covenant between God and his people. A covenant is an agreement. Let’s look at two covenants in the Old Testament as examples:
Genesis 15:18, a covenant between God and Abraham where God promised to give the land of Israel to Abraham’s descendants.
Exodus 19, the covenant between God and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai where they promised to be his people and he promised to be their God.
Both these covenants were sealed by the blood of animal sacrifices.
The Old Testament is largely the story of how Israel failed to keep their side of the covenant. You would expect this to mean that God would respond by refusing to honour his side of the covenant, but he didn’t. In Jeremiah 31:31, God promises to make a new covenant – people might fail to keep their side of the covenant, but he will forgive and keep his side.
This new covenant was also sealed by the blood of a sacrifice. Not this time an animal, but the blood of God’s own son, whom he willingly gave to reconcile us to himself.
God offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life. We agree to be his people. We cannot live up to our side of the covenant, but God will accept our faith, by his grace. This is expressed in Romans 3:23-24: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we are justified freely by his grace through redemption in Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17 – as well as showing the covenant between God and his people, the bread and wine show the unity and fellowship between his people.
The evidence is that the first Christians shared the ‘communion’ bread and wine whenever they could as a sign of their faith and fellowship; soon it became established as a service that was held on the first day of the week.
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Baptism - a matter of life or death
A summary of the Bible Hour presentation at the Christadelphian Hall, Blackpool Street, Burton-upon-Trent on Sunday 5th September 2010.
This blog uses Bible references. If you don’t have a Bible, you can find the Bible text online.
Baptism – a matter of life and death! It does seem to be a bit of serious title doesn’t it? But from the Bible’s perspective, that is exactly what it is. The Bible teaches quite simply that:
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”
So it does seem to be black and white that if we believe
– and we will discuss what we need to believe in a little later on, coupled with the act of baptism we will somehow live and not die.
And those are incredibly powerful words of hope for us because if there is one thing certain in this life is that all of us, without exception will die at some point.
Now this evening I would like us to think about what baptism means and I want to come at the subject from the Bible’s perspective because it is the Bible which sets out the principles concerning it.
The Bible claims to be the inspired Word of God which can teach us truthfully on such matters.
As the letter of Timothy tells us “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Not only can the Bible tell us why and how baptism came about, but we can be instructed on how it is relevant to you and me in the 21st Century. Because out in the world I would suggest there is quite a confused picture of baptism.
If we were to ask the question to anyone on the street “tell me what you can about baptism?” pretty much everyone would associate it with water and a belief in Jesus and the Bible.
They may not be able to tell you what it means and why it happens, but baptism is widely understood to be associated with the life of a Christian. And they would be right. But there is a confused picture about baptism out there.
A lot of people will claim to have “been baptised” as a child, and what they are actually talking about is them being christened and sprinkled with water on their foreheads.
That may or may not have been that last time they have actually been across the threshhold of a church but in their minds, whether or not they are practising christian or not, being christened as a baby has somehow put a tick in the box and they somehow are “alright with God” so if anything untowards happens the christening can act like some kind of insurance policy.
This is a quote from the Code of Canon Law which states:
“Parents are obliged to see that their infants are baptised within the first few weeks. As soon as possible after the birth, indeed even before it, they are to approach the parish priest to ask for the sacrament for their child, and to be themselves duly prepared for it. If the infant is in danger of death, it is to be baptised without any delay.”
There are other groups who view the practice as simply a welcoming in to the church that they belong to. It may be seen as a family tradition, that is what is done for every new family member.
There are other groups who believe in full adult immersion in the waters of baptism. i.e that a person has to be an adult and has to be fully submerged in water and it is this which constitutes true baptism.
Now my aim this evening is not to dismantle and attack other people's beliefs on the subject because I’m sure many people will have their owm opinions on the subject but as I say simply to find out what the Bible teaches on the subject because if it truly is a matter of life and death, all of us out of self preservation should take it seriously.
So where do we start?
The first thing to note is that the disciples of John the baptist and Jesus were instructed by them to be baptized and to baptize others. Baptism in all Biblical records is closely associated with those who respond to God, to His word and to His ways.
Let's have a look at where baptism starts to take place in the Bible and I’d like us to go to the new testament and to Matthew 3 verse 1. This is the first mention of baptism in the Bible and it is taking place by John the Baptist, a prophet who heralded the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1:
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”
So there is a number of things we can learn here.
Firstly: repentance goes hand in hand with baptism.It was baptism of repentance. Repentance is about a regret for previous things we have done. So the act of baptism somehow marked a change in a person from regretful things.
Secondly: It was about being prepared for the Kingdom of heaven. How would be manifested? In the Lord Jesus Christ who would begin to teach the people about the kingdom to come.Of which the act of baptism would somehow make people acceptable.
Thirdly: The people were baptized in the river Jordan, a river which runs right through the country of Israel. They were not sprinkled with water. They actually went down into the river and they came up out of the river. If we look verse 16 of the same chapter and to the account of Jesus’ baptism, we read that he did the same thing. Verse 16: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.”
In fact when we look at the literal meaning of the word ‘baptism’ it fill out the picture for us of what actually happened. The word baptise, comes from the Greek word ‘baptiso’, it is used in the sense of immersion. It means to dip or plunge in liquid so that the whole thing is fully under and is fully covered. This is important for us to keep in mind because of what it represents. And we shall come on to this in a moment.
It's interesting to note in the first occurance of baptism, there is no mention of people being sprinkled with water and there is no mention of children being baptised here. Infact quite the contrary. As we have sayed the act of baptism was accompanied by repentance and an acknowledgement of regret for previous wrong doing. In other words, it required someone old enough to have the capacity to be able to do this.
Whilst we are in this chapter I think its worth pointing out that even the Lord Jesus Christ himself thought it was needful to occur. That it was vital to his existence and really it proves the point that if we truly profess to follow the Bible then it is neccessary For those who say they do follow the Bible
but haven’t been baptized are actually in error.
From these beginnings, the practice is carried out by the church for example in Acts 2 verse 41, where we read about the people who received the gospel from Peter, “that the people gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added [unto them] about three thousand souls.”
Understanding this concept of repentance is the first step to understanding what baptism is all about. As we have said, there is an acknowledgement by the recipient that they are going to turn their life around from the life they were living to a new a different life. There is an acknowledgement that the life they had been life is one that is contrary to God. That they have been ‘in sin’ and they want to make a new start. Primarily it is understanding how that we as human beings are under a curse of sin and death. That sinfulness come naturally to us. If we turn to Genesis 2, we can see how this originally unfolded.
Now it's not the story of creation that I want to concentrate on here, I just want us to look at the consequence of disobedience unto God. God said don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and they did. Chapter 2 verse 17, we read the LORD’s warning to Adam and Eve: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Turn over the page to Genesis 3 verse 19, this is the LORD talking to Adam after he had disobeyed God: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
So the LORD’s response for disobedience is unequivocal. Sin equals death and because you and I are the offspring of Adam and Eve, we have inherited the same free will as they and the same curse too.
We may think that it is a bit unfair, after all it wasn’t you or me that disobeyed God in that instance in the garden, but doing what we want to do as opposed to what God wants us to do comes naturally to us because of the way that we’ve been made.
We are inherently sinful and because of that we’re all touched by the same curse given to Adam. We return to the ground after our 70 or so years and become as dust as Adam did.
It all seems to be a pretty depressing picture but if we read on we find that not only were Adam Eve cursed, they were given a way back from sin by the Lord covering their sin.
Verse 21 we read “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Although this was a literal covering for their nakedness, it showed an important principle that in order for sins to be done away with, there had to be the shedding of blood.
It was if to say that sin is so grevious to the LORD that needed something as serious and meaningful as the shedding of blood in order for sins to be forgiven. And
this is a core principle which runs right through scripture and which manifests itself in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Baptism really pivots upon Jesus Christ. In the passage we took in Matthew we saw how John called on people to be baptized. Why? because of the coming of the kingdom of God revealed in Jesus’ ministry.
The Lord Jesus came into the world to cover the sins of the world once and for all, not by the blood of an animal like in the garden of Eden, but by his own blood in his crucifixion.
The Lord had to undergo such a cruel death because it was a demonstration of the highest price paid for sin being done away with once and for all. As Hebrews 9 confirms, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins”. John the Baptist recognised and witnessed to the work of the Lord Jesus because he is recorded as saying in the gospel of John chapter 1:29 speaking of Jesus “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.”
Right at the very start we mentioned that being baptized was associated with “belief” in something. We read “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved..." The belief that it is talking about is the belief in the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That in his death and ressurection our sins can be covered once and for all.
We read in the gospel of John chapter 3 verse 17 speaking of the minstry of the Lord Jesus: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
So although we have seen that the LORD God is true to His word and mete out punishment on those who are disobedient, He actually is a loving and merciful God who is not willing that any should perish. He sent His Son into the world to give man a way whereby he might be eternally redeemed from sin and death.
Belief in the name of the Lord Jesus is integral to the process of baptism. Something which is born by many scriptural passages. We don’t need to turn them up but I will just mention a few of them.
The apostle Peter in preaching to the people in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost says in Acts 2:38 “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”
The apostle Paul preaching in Ephesus a little later on says pretty much the same thing “ In Acts 19:4 we read: “Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And so it goes on.
How can belief in the Lord Jesus Christ be a means to save us from sin and death? The answer lies in the life of Jesus and his death on the cross. When we consider his life we are introduced to a man that had the same nature as ours because he was born of the Spirit and of a woman, a descendent of Adam and Eve. His father was God and his mother was Mary and therfore he inherited the same capacity for sin as us.
The letter to the Hebrews tells us that he was made in a similar way to us, we read that the Lord suffered in the things he was tempted by...he was in all point tempted like us, yet without sin.” To put it simply, the Lord Jesus experienced all the desires common to human nature.
He knew of the things the LORD God wanted him to fulfill and he chose to supress his own desires, rejecting them in favour of faithful obedience unto God. The significance of this and the implications are far reaching. For the first time in the history of mankind, there was a man who was without sin, he had the capacity for it and yet he conquered it - because of this he was the perfect sacrifice to take away sin and death once and for all. The Lord Jesus’ perfect life of obedience, unto the cross was the ultimate offering for sin, it was the perfect expression of love and obedience and it was the vital atonement for mankind’s sin that would ultimately destroy sin and death forever.
Being baptised is often called being ‘in Christ’. It sounds like a bit of a strange thing to say that when we are baptised that we are ‘in Christ’ or we have ‘put on Christ’, but this is how the LORD God sees it. We are brought into a new relationship with the Father and Son, we have become members of the Lord’s family.
The apostle Paul expands upon this new relationship that we can obtain when we are baptised in writing to the Galatians. If we just turn to Galatians 3 verse 26: Here the apostle is writing to a new church in Galatia and is introducing them into the fact that if they are baptized into Jesus, then they can inherit the same promises given to all those who are faithful to God. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
We are all part of the family of the God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have fellowship one with another in the way we are all brethren and sisters in Christ. We have fellowship together as we encourage one another on the path to the kingdom. That fellowship manifests itself in the partaking of the bread and wine week by week to remember what has been achieved for us by the Lord Jesus.
The apostle Paul goes further elsewhere and talks about us being part of the body of Christ, of which he is the head.
Now when we looked at the meaning of the word “baptism” we mentioned that full immersion or being completely submerged in water is a symbolic act and this is exactly what it is.
Baptism is a type or a kind of ‘shadow’ of what the Lord went through in his sacrifice. The Lord was crucified as we have discussed but he was also raised from the dead and made immortal and free from the curse of the garden of Eden. He wasn’t worthy of death because sin wasn’t found in his perfect life. Similarly, if we are baptised it is a kind of reenactment of what the Lord went through - it is a symbol of death and resurrection to newness of life. The further writings of Paul in Romans 6 bears this out. If we just turn to Romans 6 we can see how this symbology works in the case of baptism, and it also explains further this idea of being “in Christ”.
Beginning Romans 6 verse 4: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”
Now that may appear to be a complex passage but actually it is rather simple. The act of baptism is a symbol of dying to an old way of life and rising to a new life in Christ. The old man, the man of the flesh, the old way that we have lived our lives has been replaced by a new way, a new creation, one that is in Christ doing the things God would have us do.
If we continue to do those things, by the grace of God we can look forward to the same prospect given unto Jesus, raised from the dead and granted immortality. When will this take place? When the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven after he was ressurected he sayed he would come back in the same way he went to restore the kingdom. For those who have died before that happens there is the prospect of being raised from the dead as Paul says we will be changed into the likeness of the Lord.
What a wonderful prospect this is for us to look forward to!
If we are raised as a new creature in the waters of baptism we are expected by God to live like a new creation unto the LORD and not continue in the way we have been living. If we turn to 2 Corinthians 5:15 it bears out the point of what is expected of us. How that because Jesus died for us we have responsibilty to that sacrifice.
Verse 15: And [that] Jesus died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [him] no more. Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
This doesn’t mean to say that when we are baptised we stop sinning, this plainly doesn’t happen because we still are made up of sinful human flesh with the same desire to do what we want to do. God does not automatically change us in some miraculous act when we come up out of the waters of baptism and believe in His Son. Now will He regard us as sinless because of the sacrifice of his son. We have to realise that although we can take these steps to being right with God, there is nothing we can do that warrants us being made sinless. God’s mercy and forgiveness in his grace can come about by certain conditions. The prime condition is that people who come to Him through Jesus recognise the truth about themselves and that they acknowledge it is only through Jesus sacrifice that we can come near.
It is also in our resolution to live a new life not continuing to do what we want to do but fulfilling the commandments of Jesus.
If we continue to commit the same sins, and lead the same type of life as before, then we are in danger of taking God’s grace and His forgiveness for granted and we are making a farce of the whole institution and we will receive judgement for this.
Hebrews 10 verse 26 says: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
These are pretty strong words but really in reinforces the point that after we are baptized, it is not the end of the story for the believer. We have to ensure that we truly are making an effort to turn our back on our old way of life. That we are not walking in our old way of life and only paying lip service to a life in the Lord Jesus. The grace of God depends upon the resolution of our hearts.
Finally then:
We have see how baptism acomplishes three things.
1) It provides a cover that blots out past sins by forgiveness.
Being in Jesus provides a basis for fellowship with God and with each other as we share in fellowship.
2) It provides a means of access to God’s mercy, nsuring continual forgiveness of sins after baptism when those sins are confessed and forsaken.
3) And it of course fulfils a commandment of Christ.
We have also seen that full adult immersion in the waters of baptism by someone who acknowledges their sinfulness and repents of it in the name of the Lord Jesus can only be the true biblical teaching on the matter.
The question for you and me is, if baptism is the only means whereby death is not the end of the story for us. If it truly is a matter of life and death, then we need to do something about it.
This blog uses Bible references. If you don’t have a Bible, you can find the Bible text online.
Baptism – a matter of life and death! It does seem to be a bit of serious title doesn’t it? But from the Bible’s perspective, that is exactly what it is. The Bible teaches quite simply that:
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”
So it does seem to be black and white that if we believe
– and we will discuss what we need to believe in a little later on, coupled with the act of baptism we will somehow live and not die.
And those are incredibly powerful words of hope for us because if there is one thing certain in this life is that all of us, without exception will die at some point.
Now this evening I would like us to think about what baptism means and I want to come at the subject from the Bible’s perspective because it is the Bible which sets out the principles concerning it.
The Bible claims to be the inspired Word of God which can teach us truthfully on such matters.
As the letter of Timothy tells us “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Not only can the Bible tell us why and how baptism came about, but we can be instructed on how it is relevant to you and me in the 21st Century. Because out in the world I would suggest there is quite a confused picture of baptism.
If we were to ask the question to anyone on the street “tell me what you can about baptism?” pretty much everyone would associate it with water and a belief in Jesus and the Bible.
They may not be able to tell you what it means and why it happens, but baptism is widely understood to be associated with the life of a Christian. And they would be right. But there is a confused picture about baptism out there.
A lot of people will claim to have “been baptised” as a child, and what they are actually talking about is them being christened and sprinkled with water on their foreheads.
That may or may not have been that last time they have actually been across the threshhold of a church but in their minds, whether or not they are practising christian or not, being christened as a baby has somehow put a tick in the box and they somehow are “alright with God” so if anything untowards happens the christening can act like some kind of insurance policy.
This is a quote from the Code of Canon Law which states:
“Parents are obliged to see that their infants are baptised within the first few weeks. As soon as possible after the birth, indeed even before it, they are to approach the parish priest to ask for the sacrament for their child, and to be themselves duly prepared for it. If the infant is in danger of death, it is to be baptised without any delay.”
There are other groups who view the practice as simply a welcoming in to the church that they belong to. It may be seen as a family tradition, that is what is done for every new family member.
There are other groups who believe in full adult immersion in the waters of baptism. i.e that a person has to be an adult and has to be fully submerged in water and it is this which constitutes true baptism.
Now my aim this evening is not to dismantle and attack other people's beliefs on the subject because I’m sure many people will have their owm opinions on the subject but as I say simply to find out what the Bible teaches on the subject because if it truly is a matter of life and death, all of us out of self preservation should take it seriously.
So where do we start?
The first thing to note is that the disciples of John the baptist and Jesus were instructed by them to be baptized and to baptize others. Baptism in all Biblical records is closely associated with those who respond to God, to His word and to His ways.
Let's have a look at where baptism starts to take place in the Bible and I’d like us to go to the new testament and to Matthew 3 verse 1. This is the first mention of baptism in the Bible and it is taking place by John the Baptist, a prophet who heralded the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1:
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”
So there is a number of things we can learn here.
Firstly: repentance goes hand in hand with baptism.It was baptism of repentance. Repentance is about a regret for previous things we have done. So the act of baptism somehow marked a change in a person from regretful things.
Secondly: It was about being prepared for the Kingdom of heaven. How would be manifested? In the Lord Jesus Christ who would begin to teach the people about the kingdom to come.Of which the act of baptism would somehow make people acceptable.
Thirdly: The people were baptized in the river Jordan, a river which runs right through the country of Israel. They were not sprinkled with water. They actually went down into the river and they came up out of the river. If we look verse 16 of the same chapter and to the account of Jesus’ baptism, we read that he did the same thing. Verse 16: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.”
In fact when we look at the literal meaning of the word ‘baptism’ it fill out the picture for us of what actually happened. The word baptise, comes from the Greek word ‘baptiso’, it is used in the sense of immersion. It means to dip or plunge in liquid so that the whole thing is fully under and is fully covered. This is important for us to keep in mind because of what it represents. And we shall come on to this in a moment.
It's interesting to note in the first occurance of baptism, there is no mention of people being sprinkled with water and there is no mention of children being baptised here. Infact quite the contrary. As we have sayed the act of baptism was accompanied by repentance and an acknowledgement of regret for previous wrong doing. In other words, it required someone old enough to have the capacity to be able to do this.
Whilst we are in this chapter I think its worth pointing out that even the Lord Jesus Christ himself thought it was needful to occur. That it was vital to his existence and really it proves the point that if we truly profess to follow the Bible then it is neccessary For those who say they do follow the Bible
but haven’t been baptized are actually in error.
From these beginnings, the practice is carried out by the church for example in Acts 2 verse 41, where we read about the people who received the gospel from Peter, “that the people gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added [unto them] about three thousand souls.”
Understanding this concept of repentance is the first step to understanding what baptism is all about. As we have said, there is an acknowledgement by the recipient that they are going to turn their life around from the life they were living to a new a different life. There is an acknowledgement that the life they had been life is one that is contrary to God. That they have been ‘in sin’ and they want to make a new start. Primarily it is understanding how that we as human beings are under a curse of sin and death. That sinfulness come naturally to us. If we turn to Genesis 2, we can see how this originally unfolded.
Now it's not the story of creation that I want to concentrate on here, I just want us to look at the consequence of disobedience unto God. God said don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and they did. Chapter 2 verse 17, we read the LORD’s warning to Adam and Eve: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Turn over the page to Genesis 3 verse 19, this is the LORD talking to Adam after he had disobeyed God: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
So the LORD’s response for disobedience is unequivocal. Sin equals death and because you and I are the offspring of Adam and Eve, we have inherited the same free will as they and the same curse too.
We may think that it is a bit unfair, after all it wasn’t you or me that disobeyed God in that instance in the garden, but doing what we want to do as opposed to what God wants us to do comes naturally to us because of the way that we’ve been made.
We are inherently sinful and because of that we’re all touched by the same curse given to Adam. We return to the ground after our 70 or so years and become as dust as Adam did.
It all seems to be a pretty depressing picture but if we read on we find that not only were Adam Eve cursed, they were given a way back from sin by the Lord covering their sin.
Verse 21 we read “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Although this was a literal covering for their nakedness, it showed an important principle that in order for sins to be done away with, there had to be the shedding of blood.
It was if to say that sin is so grevious to the LORD that needed something as serious and meaningful as the shedding of blood in order for sins to be forgiven. And
this is a core principle which runs right through scripture and which manifests itself in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Baptism really pivots upon Jesus Christ. In the passage we took in Matthew we saw how John called on people to be baptized. Why? because of the coming of the kingdom of God revealed in Jesus’ ministry.
The Lord Jesus came into the world to cover the sins of the world once and for all, not by the blood of an animal like in the garden of Eden, but by his own blood in his crucifixion.
The Lord had to undergo such a cruel death because it was a demonstration of the highest price paid for sin being done away with once and for all. As Hebrews 9 confirms, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins”. John the Baptist recognised and witnessed to the work of the Lord Jesus because he is recorded as saying in the gospel of John chapter 1:29 speaking of Jesus “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.”
Right at the very start we mentioned that being baptized was associated with “belief” in something. We read “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved..." The belief that it is talking about is the belief in the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That in his death and ressurection our sins can be covered once and for all.
We read in the gospel of John chapter 3 verse 17 speaking of the minstry of the Lord Jesus: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
So although we have seen that the LORD God is true to His word and mete out punishment on those who are disobedient, He actually is a loving and merciful God who is not willing that any should perish. He sent His Son into the world to give man a way whereby he might be eternally redeemed from sin and death.
Belief in the name of the Lord Jesus is integral to the process of baptism. Something which is born by many scriptural passages. We don’t need to turn them up but I will just mention a few of them.
The apostle Peter in preaching to the people in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost says in Acts 2:38 “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”
The apostle Paul preaching in Ephesus a little later on says pretty much the same thing “ In Acts 19:4 we read: “Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And so it goes on.
How can belief in the Lord Jesus Christ be a means to save us from sin and death? The answer lies in the life of Jesus and his death on the cross. When we consider his life we are introduced to a man that had the same nature as ours because he was born of the Spirit and of a woman, a descendent of Adam and Eve. His father was God and his mother was Mary and therfore he inherited the same capacity for sin as us.
The letter to the Hebrews tells us that he was made in a similar way to us, we read that the Lord suffered in the things he was tempted by...he was in all point tempted like us, yet without sin.” To put it simply, the Lord Jesus experienced all the desires common to human nature.
He knew of the things the LORD God wanted him to fulfill and he chose to supress his own desires, rejecting them in favour of faithful obedience unto God. The significance of this and the implications are far reaching. For the first time in the history of mankind, there was a man who was without sin, he had the capacity for it and yet he conquered it - because of this he was the perfect sacrifice to take away sin and death once and for all. The Lord Jesus’ perfect life of obedience, unto the cross was the ultimate offering for sin, it was the perfect expression of love and obedience and it was the vital atonement for mankind’s sin that would ultimately destroy sin and death forever.
Being baptised is often called being ‘in Christ’. It sounds like a bit of a strange thing to say that when we are baptised that we are ‘in Christ’ or we have ‘put on Christ’, but this is how the LORD God sees it. We are brought into a new relationship with the Father and Son, we have become members of the Lord’s family.
The apostle Paul expands upon this new relationship that we can obtain when we are baptised in writing to the Galatians. If we just turn to Galatians 3 verse 26: Here the apostle is writing to a new church in Galatia and is introducing them into the fact that if they are baptized into Jesus, then they can inherit the same promises given to all those who are faithful to God. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
We are all part of the family of the God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have fellowship one with another in the way we are all brethren and sisters in Christ. We have fellowship together as we encourage one another on the path to the kingdom. That fellowship manifests itself in the partaking of the bread and wine week by week to remember what has been achieved for us by the Lord Jesus.
The apostle Paul goes further elsewhere and talks about us being part of the body of Christ, of which he is the head.
Now when we looked at the meaning of the word “baptism” we mentioned that full immersion or being completely submerged in water is a symbolic act and this is exactly what it is.
Baptism is a type or a kind of ‘shadow’ of what the Lord went through in his sacrifice. The Lord was crucified as we have discussed but he was also raised from the dead and made immortal and free from the curse of the garden of Eden. He wasn’t worthy of death because sin wasn’t found in his perfect life. Similarly, if we are baptised it is a kind of reenactment of what the Lord went through - it is a symbol of death and resurrection to newness of life. The further writings of Paul in Romans 6 bears this out. If we just turn to Romans 6 we can see how this symbology works in the case of baptism, and it also explains further this idea of being “in Christ”.
Beginning Romans 6 verse 4: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”
Now that may appear to be a complex passage but actually it is rather simple. The act of baptism is a symbol of dying to an old way of life and rising to a new life in Christ. The old man, the man of the flesh, the old way that we have lived our lives has been replaced by a new way, a new creation, one that is in Christ doing the things God would have us do.
If we continue to do those things, by the grace of God we can look forward to the same prospect given unto Jesus, raised from the dead and granted immortality. When will this take place? When the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven after he was ressurected he sayed he would come back in the same way he went to restore the kingdom. For those who have died before that happens there is the prospect of being raised from the dead as Paul says we will be changed into the likeness of the Lord.
What a wonderful prospect this is for us to look forward to!
If we are raised as a new creature in the waters of baptism we are expected by God to live like a new creation unto the LORD and not continue in the way we have been living. If we turn to 2 Corinthians 5:15 it bears out the point of what is expected of us. How that because Jesus died for us we have responsibilty to that sacrifice.
Verse 15: And [that] Jesus died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [him] no more. Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
This doesn’t mean to say that when we are baptised we stop sinning, this plainly doesn’t happen because we still are made up of sinful human flesh with the same desire to do what we want to do. God does not automatically change us in some miraculous act when we come up out of the waters of baptism and believe in His Son. Now will He regard us as sinless because of the sacrifice of his son. We have to realise that although we can take these steps to being right with God, there is nothing we can do that warrants us being made sinless. God’s mercy and forgiveness in his grace can come about by certain conditions. The prime condition is that people who come to Him through Jesus recognise the truth about themselves and that they acknowledge it is only through Jesus sacrifice that we can come near.
It is also in our resolution to live a new life not continuing to do what we want to do but fulfilling the commandments of Jesus.
If we continue to commit the same sins, and lead the same type of life as before, then we are in danger of taking God’s grace and His forgiveness for granted and we are making a farce of the whole institution and we will receive judgement for this.
Hebrews 10 verse 26 says: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
These are pretty strong words but really in reinforces the point that after we are baptized, it is not the end of the story for the believer. We have to ensure that we truly are making an effort to turn our back on our old way of life. That we are not walking in our old way of life and only paying lip service to a life in the Lord Jesus. The grace of God depends upon the resolution of our hearts.
Finally then:
We have see how baptism acomplishes three things.
1) It provides a cover that blots out past sins by forgiveness.
Being in Jesus provides a basis for fellowship with God and with each other as we share in fellowship.
2) It provides a means of access to God’s mercy, nsuring continual forgiveness of sins after baptism when those sins are confessed and forsaken.
3) And it of course fulfils a commandment of Christ.
We have also seen that full adult immersion in the waters of baptism by someone who acknowledges their sinfulness and repents of it in the name of the Lord Jesus can only be the true biblical teaching on the matter.
The question for you and me is, if baptism is the only means whereby death is not the end of the story for us. If it truly is a matter of life and death, then we need to do something about it.
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Is the God of Christianity the God of the Bible?
A summary of the Bible Hour presentation at the Christadelphian Hall, Blackpool Street, Burton-upon-Trent on Sunday 15th August 2010.
A prominent Christian, trying to build a bridge with the Muslim community, said, “We worship the same God as you do.”
His Muslim audience retorted, “Our God is the God of Abraham, and Noah, and Jesus – the God Allah.”
This Christian, along with the majority of modern Christians, subscribes to the orthodox ‘Trinitarian’ view of God, which views him as one God in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This view is incomprehensible to Muslims – and also to Jews, and to many Christians.
Another orthodox Christian has said, “The Trinity is not simple to express briefly, and it is impossible to explain fully.” We have to ask the question, is the Trinity the God of the Bible?
Three questions which Trinitarians find it very difficult to answer:
1. Who was tempted in the wilderness?
2. Who died on the cross?
3. Who ‘learned obedience by the things which he suffered’? (Hebrews 4)
Bible passages which are claimed to support the doctrine of the Trinity
Genesis 1 verses 1 to 5. When God created the world, the Hebrew word ‘Elohim’ which the Bible writer uses is actually plural – “In the beginning Gods created the heaven and the earth.”
Is this really talking about a ‘triune godhead’? Genesis is the Jewish Bible, and the Jews have never taken the word ‘Elohim’ to mean a trinity. Instead they generally interpret it as God being addressed in the plural – an idiom of the Hebrew language. (Another explanation is that god is talking to the angels who worked in the creation of the world (Job 38:7).)
John 1 verses 1 to 5: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him …” In the King James version and most of the versions which have followed, this reads very much as though Jesus was the Word. However, the King James version, along with most of its successors, have been translated by people with a distinct Trinitarian bias. Earlier translations such as Tyndale’s refer to the ‘word’ as ‘it’, with apparently no implication that it refers to Jesus.
Jesus was the ‘word made flesh’ (verse 14), i.e. God’s son brought to birth in the purpose of God. See Luke 1:35, John 17:3.
(There is also a school of thought which says that actually John chapter 1 is entirely speaking about Christ, and not at all about the creation of the world. This is another subject.)
John 17 verse 5: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Surely this is a reference to Jesus’ pre-existence as part of the ‘godhead’? However, passages such as 1 Peter 1:19-20 teach that Jesus was in the purpose of God from the beginning – he did not exist until he was born.
The history of the Trinity
The Bible itself says nothing even remotely about ‘one God in three persons’.
However, from the early days of the Christian community people were speculating about the nature of Christ, and suggestions soon arose that he was perhaps part of the ‘godhead’. The Nicene Creed in 323 AD was the first time that the idea was formalised. The Creed was steered through by the emperor Constantine in order to head off disunity between opposing theological factions in the church.
A prominent Christian, trying to build a bridge with the Muslim community, said, “We worship the same God as you do.”
His Muslim audience retorted, “Our God is the God of Abraham, and Noah, and Jesus – the God Allah.”
This Christian, along with the majority of modern Christians, subscribes to the orthodox ‘Trinitarian’ view of God, which views him as one God in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This view is incomprehensible to Muslims – and also to Jews, and to many Christians.
Another orthodox Christian has said, “The Trinity is not simple to express briefly, and it is impossible to explain fully.” We have to ask the question, is the Trinity the God of the Bible?
Three questions which Trinitarians find it very difficult to answer:
1. Who was tempted in the wilderness?
2. Who died on the cross?
3. Who ‘learned obedience by the things which he suffered’? (Hebrews 4)
Bible passages which are claimed to support the doctrine of the Trinity
Genesis 1 verses 1 to 5. When God created the world, the Hebrew word ‘Elohim’ which the Bible writer uses is actually plural – “In the beginning Gods created the heaven and the earth.”
Is this really talking about a ‘triune godhead’? Genesis is the Jewish Bible, and the Jews have never taken the word ‘Elohim’ to mean a trinity. Instead they generally interpret it as God being addressed in the plural – an idiom of the Hebrew language. (Another explanation is that god is talking to the angels who worked in the creation of the world (Job 38:7).)
John 1 verses 1 to 5: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him …” In the King James version and most of the versions which have followed, this reads very much as though Jesus was the Word. However, the King James version, along with most of its successors, have been translated by people with a distinct Trinitarian bias. Earlier translations such as Tyndale’s refer to the ‘word’ as ‘it’, with apparently no implication that it refers to Jesus.
Jesus was the ‘word made flesh’ (verse 14), i.e. God’s son brought to birth in the purpose of God. See Luke 1:35, John 17:3.
(There is also a school of thought which says that actually John chapter 1 is entirely speaking about Christ, and not at all about the creation of the world. This is another subject.)
John 17 verse 5: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Surely this is a reference to Jesus’ pre-existence as part of the ‘godhead’? However, passages such as 1 Peter 1:19-20 teach that Jesus was in the purpose of God from the beginning – he did not exist until he was born.
The history of the Trinity
The Bible itself says nothing even remotely about ‘one God in three persons’.
However, from the early days of the Christian community people were speculating about the nature of Christ, and suggestions soon arose that he was perhaps part of the ‘godhead’. The Nicene Creed in 323 AD was the first time that the idea was formalised. The Creed was steered through by the emperor Constantine in order to head off disunity between opposing theological factions in the church.
Monday, 9 August 2010
What the Bible says about science
A summary of the Bible Hour presentation at the Christadelphian Hall, Blackpool Street, Burton-upon-Trent on Sunday 8th August 2010.
This blog uses Bible references. If you don’t have a Bible, you can find the Bible text online.
My purpose this evening as a Bible believer and also a scientist is not to try and give a detailed response to those areas of science which seem to contradict the Bible but rather to show that it is reasonable to believe in the Bible, in a scientific world. I’ll be honest; the Bible says nothing about what we have come to think of as science in the 21st Century. The Bible is only concerned with spiritual things, with winning the hearts and minds of men. The Bible claims that God exists, that he was our creator. It shows God as very concerned for us and that He is always grieved by sin, which is when men follow their own way and not His. He could interfere but does not because that would remove the gift of choice. The Bible lays out God’s purpose, that is, His way of solving the problem of sin and eventually filling the Earth with His Glory. Which is a religious way of saying that God has planned that He and mankind together will live one day in perfect harmony on a perfect planet for ever, with no war, illness pain or death to spoil the perfection.
Let me assure you that the Bible is not against the natural truth about the world that science has uncovered. The Bible states simply that God created the universe therefore its operating principles were also created by Him. Some of these natural truths were actually written into the Bible long before men re-discovered them and called it science. The Creator does not reveal to us the details of how he made everything, it just serves as a background to the working out of His purpose with human beings. God is unconcerned about the physical form of things. He is only concerned about the mind of man. Nevertheless, that background is there, if you look for it. Examples: Ecclesiastes 1 v 5 - 7 In our age we just call it weather. Job 26 v 7 “He hangeth the world on nothing. In our age we call it space/time. Matthew 6 v 19 Rust and Moth doth corrupt, we call these biology and chemistry. There are dozens of other examples. But what’s in a name? The Bible writes about these as fundamental principles built into the fabric of the world; it is not concerned about explaining the mechanisms. Christ says: v 20 “Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven”. The Bible reveals that the failure to see God as the prime cause of nature has consequences and those consequences are what we are going to be talking about.
If then the Bible says nothing about science why are we talking about it?
The point is that unless we are scientists very few of us understand what science is or what it has done to us. We have vague impressions of test tubes and chemical flasks, atomic symbols and the DNA twisted helix. But these are just images for popular consumption. It is paraded as truth but all it actually is, is a current model of the world. The heroic message pumped out is that science is fashioned by the struggle of human reason. From the first taming of fire to the microwave oven the inventiveness of man has made steady progress. It is celebrated in chatty TV programmes and glossy magazine articles and popular books.
This is propaganda and dangerously seductive propaganda. In reality we have been and are deceived by what science really is - a particular way of thinking which has shown itself unable to coexist with any other way of thought. The gadgets it produces and the comforts we enjoy are not what science is about, they are only the side effects. We have forgotten how new science is in human history. Science and technology have not developed gradually over thousands of years as we are informed; it has exploded all about us over the last 400 years.
The traces of the conflict are still there. Let us go to the two times in the Bible when the word “science” is actually used. Daniel 1 v 4 in the Old Testament, that part of the Bible written before Jesus Christ in the Hebrew language and in 1 Timothy 6 v 20 written after Jesus Christ in the Greek language. If you have a modern translation you will notice that the word does not appear, it is only used in what is called the Authorised Version or the King James Bible, a translation completed in 1611. From the context and from later translations we quickly realise that the word ‘science’ does not mean what we think. In the Old Testament, the word means ‘to ascertain by seeing’, and is used to describe ‘knowledge’ which in Daniels case meant he had a good grasp of the facts of any subject. NIV. In the New Testament it is the word ‘Gnosis’ and is always used of the knowledge of God and His salvation. Paul’s use of the word here in I Timothy 6 is about matters of faith as emphasised by the last verse v 21.
Why then is the word in the Authorised version translated as ‘Science’?
The AV was translated and first published at a time when the Church of the day that we now call the Catholic Church was reeling under the impact of something new. It was called in Italy the ‘Scienza Nuova’. The ‘New Knowledge’. The people of 400 years ago had a picture of their world that is very peculiar to our understanding. It was based on the published knowledge of a Greek called Aristotle born in 384 BC, which another man called Thomas Aquinas had incorporated into the Christian faith in 1266. Since that time the science, the knowledge of the day was founded not upon observation and experiment but by the authority of the Church. The celestial heavens were, perfect, unchangeable, pure and refined not made out of the stuff of Earth. It was where God lived together with the immortal angels. Also as obviously, the Earth was diseased and filthy, subject to decay and change, full of sin and death and corruption. The purpose of the whole system was so that man could rise from the cess pit of sin it to the purity of heaven through the salvation offered by Christ. The salvation of Mankind was therefore the heart and cause of the whole observed system from men to stars. It was a model that seemed to fit. It was the truth as seen by men of that age.
In 1609 however a man called Galileo looked through a telescope and saw that the world did not fit the model. He saw that the moon had mountains and plains and was essentially the same as the Earth; it was not made of celestial substance. He saw the moons of Jupiter circling the planet just like the Earth and it’s moon. He saw that Saturn had rings. He saw a super nova and knew it was a new star thus proving that the immutable heavens were also subject to change. He watched swinging lamps and dropped weights from the Tower at Pisa and deduced how principles of acceleration, mass, velocity and time interacted. He wrote “In science the authority embodied in the opinion of thousands is not worth a spark of reason in one man”. The authority of the Church was under threat, and the Catholic Church tried to brutally suppress this New Knowledge of how to look at things without religion. This is the reason that the translators in the Daniel 1 translated ‘to ascertain by seeing’ as ‘science’ and why in 1 Timothy 6 v 20 they used the word ‘oppositions of science’. It was a feeble effort to bolster the authority of the Bible. And it did not work. While the ideas were there since 1543 with the speculations of Copernicus it was Galileo who proved it and marketed it thus becoming the father of our modern world and those who followed him have removed the old certainties one by one. The world’s culture has been progressively overwhelmed and transformed by science. Science more than anything else has made us who we are; it is the unique signature of our age.
Science is a totally different form of knowledge. Take the idea of maps which always had areas unknown on them marked ‘here be dragons’ because mapmakers were only left with imagination when the limits of their knowledge were reached. Then the ‘new knowledge’ cast invisible lines called latitude and longitude over the planet and suddenly by looking at the position of the stars and making a calculation we could know where we were in relationship to everywhere else. It worked. There was no speculation required. This was not simply better knowledge it is utterly different knowledge – and it works with spectacular effectiveness. Straight away the old maps seem naïve, the wisdom of the past seems quaint. Those invisible mental lines that science drew, technology has made real with cables, radio and microwave links. We have killed the dragons. This is the power of science and the lure of science and the danger of science.
Science it is claimed is neutral or innocent but it is not. Science has done us terrible spiritual damage and in our day the world at large are only just beginning to realise it. It forces us to separate our values from our knowledge of how things work. It is a spiritual corrosive, dissolving away old traditions and ancient authorities.
All science has, is its effectiveness. What does it tell us about our past; it can only offer theories. What can it tell us about our future; it can only guess. What does it tell us about ourselves and how we must live; the answer is ‘nothing’. One philosopher has written, “We feel that even when all possible scientific questions have been answered, the problems of life remain completely untouched.” As we look at news day by day we know that this is true. All the science we know cannot give us peace of mind; the Bible can. Phil 4 v 6 - 7. Science has not stopped war and conflict only made it more destructive; the Bible reveals the end of war Isaiah 2 v 4. Science has enabled women beyond the menopause to conceive and bear children but cannot tell us what love is. The Bible reveals that love is the driving power of the purpose of God. John 3 v 16 1 Cor 13 v 3. Science can explain why a sunset looks red but cannot tell us why it looks beautiful. The Bible does Ecc 3 v 11 or it can explain exactly what the waveform of a musical harmony looks like but cannot explain why the sound can make us weep or tap our feet 1 Chron 15 v 16. Albert Einstein’s wife was once asked if she understood the theory of relativity and replied “Oh no, although dear Albert has explained it to me many times – but it is not necessary to my happiness”. We might ask then what it is necessary for?
Science while it is a distinctively human creation perversely seems to have no room in it for humans.
The authority of the Church has gone, the position of the Earth relegated to an insignificant speck. Space and time have become infinite. Heaven and Hell relegated to myth. We do not even have ourselves. Man has been presented as first a descendant of apes and then as an accident of chance, here for a little while before the impersonal cosmos obliterates us as if we had never been. We are nothing. That is what science has done for us.
In this negative sense the Bible has a lot to say about science. Look at the same book we started with in 2 Timothy 3 v 1 – 7. This is a perfect description of what happens when man has no spiritual hope and it is happening now. The Bible says it is the last days. All though the ages the Bible has been there answering the questions that science does not and cannot answer. 2 Timothy 3 v 15 - 17. It is obvious that there is something in the human condition, which demands a dimension we call spiritual. The true struggle for the vast majority of human beings is to find a basis for goodness, purpose and meaning in life. The Bible gives us the answers but to understand them you need faith. This is not the dirty word that some scientists say it is. We forget that scientists who insist that they are telling us how the world is are also asking for our faith in their current model.
The days of the omnipotent, problem-solving technology is over. Science has been shown to lack a vital human input and looks more and more like a child playing in his father’s workshop full of dangerous and inexplicable tools.
Surely such a major change must have been prophesied and recorded by the Bible if as it claims it is the word of God. Well it does. We have already seen the consequences of having no hope. Look at Daniel 12 v 4. Knowledge shall be increased the old translators missed that one (science) shall be increased. When “at the time of the end”
The Bible is a book of fundamental certainties and we would encourage you to read it and understand what it is saying to you.
Don’t be afraid of a simple faith or be browbeaten by the brashness and certainty of science. Psalm 53 v 1 - 3
Gain the confidence that faith brings. Hebrews 11 v 1 - 3.
Believe that there is a creator who is concerned for this world and mankind. The earth will not be destroyed Ecclesiastes 1 v 4.
Don’t be fearful about war all that will stop when Jesus Christ returns as we have seen in Isaiah. It is certain.
Don’t worry about death. God promises that if you believe in Him and follow His ways you can live forever Romans 6 v 23
He also promises that there will be an accounting. Revelation 11 v 18
The lesson that Jesus describes in Luke 21 which applies just as much to the people of our day, to you and me, as it did to the people of Jesus' day. V 34 – 36.
This blog uses Bible references. If you don’t have a Bible, you can find the Bible text online.
My purpose this evening as a Bible believer and also a scientist is not to try and give a detailed response to those areas of science which seem to contradict the Bible but rather to show that it is reasonable to believe in the Bible, in a scientific world. I’ll be honest; the Bible says nothing about what we have come to think of as science in the 21st Century. The Bible is only concerned with spiritual things, with winning the hearts and minds of men. The Bible claims that God exists, that he was our creator. It shows God as very concerned for us and that He is always grieved by sin, which is when men follow their own way and not His. He could interfere but does not because that would remove the gift of choice. The Bible lays out God’s purpose, that is, His way of solving the problem of sin and eventually filling the Earth with His Glory. Which is a religious way of saying that God has planned that He and mankind together will live one day in perfect harmony on a perfect planet for ever, with no war, illness pain or death to spoil the perfection.
Let me assure you that the Bible is not against the natural truth about the world that science has uncovered. The Bible states simply that God created the universe therefore its operating principles were also created by Him. Some of these natural truths were actually written into the Bible long before men re-discovered them and called it science. The Creator does not reveal to us the details of how he made everything, it just serves as a background to the working out of His purpose with human beings. God is unconcerned about the physical form of things. He is only concerned about the mind of man. Nevertheless, that background is there, if you look for it. Examples: Ecclesiastes 1 v 5 - 7 In our age we just call it weather. Job 26 v 7 “He hangeth the world on nothing. In our age we call it space/time. Matthew 6 v 19 Rust and Moth doth corrupt, we call these biology and chemistry. There are dozens of other examples. But what’s in a name? The Bible writes about these as fundamental principles built into the fabric of the world; it is not concerned about explaining the mechanisms. Christ says: v 20 “Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven”. The Bible reveals that the failure to see God as the prime cause of nature has consequences and those consequences are what we are going to be talking about.
If then the Bible says nothing about science why are we talking about it?
The point is that unless we are scientists very few of us understand what science is or what it has done to us. We have vague impressions of test tubes and chemical flasks, atomic symbols and the DNA twisted helix. But these are just images for popular consumption. It is paraded as truth but all it actually is, is a current model of the world. The heroic message pumped out is that science is fashioned by the struggle of human reason. From the first taming of fire to the microwave oven the inventiveness of man has made steady progress. It is celebrated in chatty TV programmes and glossy magazine articles and popular books.
This is propaganda and dangerously seductive propaganda. In reality we have been and are deceived by what science really is - a particular way of thinking which has shown itself unable to coexist with any other way of thought. The gadgets it produces and the comforts we enjoy are not what science is about, they are only the side effects. We have forgotten how new science is in human history. Science and technology have not developed gradually over thousands of years as we are informed; it has exploded all about us over the last 400 years.
The traces of the conflict are still there. Let us go to the two times in the Bible when the word “science” is actually used. Daniel 1 v 4 in the Old Testament, that part of the Bible written before Jesus Christ in the Hebrew language and in 1 Timothy 6 v 20 written after Jesus Christ in the Greek language. If you have a modern translation you will notice that the word does not appear, it is only used in what is called the Authorised Version or the King James Bible, a translation completed in 1611. From the context and from later translations we quickly realise that the word ‘science’ does not mean what we think. In the Old Testament, the word means ‘to ascertain by seeing’, and is used to describe ‘knowledge’ which in Daniels case meant he had a good grasp of the facts of any subject. NIV. In the New Testament it is the word ‘Gnosis’ and is always used of the knowledge of God and His salvation. Paul’s use of the word here in I Timothy 6 is about matters of faith as emphasised by the last verse v 21.
Why then is the word in the Authorised version translated as ‘Science’?
The AV was translated and first published at a time when the Church of the day that we now call the Catholic Church was reeling under the impact of something new. It was called in Italy the ‘Scienza Nuova’. The ‘New Knowledge’. The people of 400 years ago had a picture of their world that is very peculiar to our understanding. It was based on the published knowledge of a Greek called Aristotle born in 384 BC, which another man called Thomas Aquinas had incorporated into the Christian faith in 1266. Since that time the science, the knowledge of the day was founded not upon observation and experiment but by the authority of the Church. The celestial heavens were, perfect, unchangeable, pure and refined not made out of the stuff of Earth. It was where God lived together with the immortal angels. Also as obviously, the Earth was diseased and filthy, subject to decay and change, full of sin and death and corruption. The purpose of the whole system was so that man could rise from the cess pit of sin it to the purity of heaven through the salvation offered by Christ. The salvation of Mankind was therefore the heart and cause of the whole observed system from men to stars. It was a model that seemed to fit. It was the truth as seen by men of that age.
In 1609 however a man called Galileo looked through a telescope and saw that the world did not fit the model. He saw that the moon had mountains and plains and was essentially the same as the Earth; it was not made of celestial substance. He saw the moons of Jupiter circling the planet just like the Earth and it’s moon. He saw that Saturn had rings. He saw a super nova and knew it was a new star thus proving that the immutable heavens were also subject to change. He watched swinging lamps and dropped weights from the Tower at Pisa and deduced how principles of acceleration, mass, velocity and time interacted. He wrote “In science the authority embodied in the opinion of thousands is not worth a spark of reason in one man”. The authority of the Church was under threat, and the Catholic Church tried to brutally suppress this New Knowledge of how to look at things without religion. This is the reason that the translators in the Daniel 1 translated ‘to ascertain by seeing’ as ‘science’ and why in 1 Timothy 6 v 20 they used the word ‘oppositions of science’. It was a feeble effort to bolster the authority of the Bible. And it did not work. While the ideas were there since 1543 with the speculations of Copernicus it was Galileo who proved it and marketed it thus becoming the father of our modern world and those who followed him have removed the old certainties one by one. The world’s culture has been progressively overwhelmed and transformed by science. Science more than anything else has made us who we are; it is the unique signature of our age.
Science is a totally different form of knowledge. Take the idea of maps which always had areas unknown on them marked ‘here be dragons’ because mapmakers were only left with imagination when the limits of their knowledge were reached. Then the ‘new knowledge’ cast invisible lines called latitude and longitude over the planet and suddenly by looking at the position of the stars and making a calculation we could know where we were in relationship to everywhere else. It worked. There was no speculation required. This was not simply better knowledge it is utterly different knowledge – and it works with spectacular effectiveness. Straight away the old maps seem naïve, the wisdom of the past seems quaint. Those invisible mental lines that science drew, technology has made real with cables, radio and microwave links. We have killed the dragons. This is the power of science and the lure of science and the danger of science.
Science it is claimed is neutral or innocent but it is not. Science has done us terrible spiritual damage and in our day the world at large are only just beginning to realise it. It forces us to separate our values from our knowledge of how things work. It is a spiritual corrosive, dissolving away old traditions and ancient authorities.
All science has, is its effectiveness. What does it tell us about our past; it can only offer theories. What can it tell us about our future; it can only guess. What does it tell us about ourselves and how we must live; the answer is ‘nothing’. One philosopher has written, “We feel that even when all possible scientific questions have been answered, the problems of life remain completely untouched.” As we look at news day by day we know that this is true. All the science we know cannot give us peace of mind; the Bible can. Phil 4 v 6 - 7. Science has not stopped war and conflict only made it more destructive; the Bible reveals the end of war Isaiah 2 v 4. Science has enabled women beyond the menopause to conceive and bear children but cannot tell us what love is. The Bible reveals that love is the driving power of the purpose of God. John 3 v 16 1 Cor 13 v 3. Science can explain why a sunset looks red but cannot tell us why it looks beautiful. The Bible does Ecc 3 v 11 or it can explain exactly what the waveform of a musical harmony looks like but cannot explain why the sound can make us weep or tap our feet 1 Chron 15 v 16. Albert Einstein’s wife was once asked if she understood the theory of relativity and replied “Oh no, although dear Albert has explained it to me many times – but it is not necessary to my happiness”. We might ask then what it is necessary for?
Science while it is a distinctively human creation perversely seems to have no room in it for humans.
The authority of the Church has gone, the position of the Earth relegated to an insignificant speck. Space and time have become infinite. Heaven and Hell relegated to myth. We do not even have ourselves. Man has been presented as first a descendant of apes and then as an accident of chance, here for a little while before the impersonal cosmos obliterates us as if we had never been. We are nothing. That is what science has done for us.
In this negative sense the Bible has a lot to say about science. Look at the same book we started with in 2 Timothy 3 v 1 – 7. This is a perfect description of what happens when man has no spiritual hope and it is happening now. The Bible says it is the last days. All though the ages the Bible has been there answering the questions that science does not and cannot answer. 2 Timothy 3 v 15 - 17. It is obvious that there is something in the human condition, which demands a dimension we call spiritual. The true struggle for the vast majority of human beings is to find a basis for goodness, purpose and meaning in life. The Bible gives us the answers but to understand them you need faith. This is not the dirty word that some scientists say it is. We forget that scientists who insist that they are telling us how the world is are also asking for our faith in their current model.
The days of the omnipotent, problem-solving technology is over. Science has been shown to lack a vital human input and looks more and more like a child playing in his father’s workshop full of dangerous and inexplicable tools.
Surely such a major change must have been prophesied and recorded by the Bible if as it claims it is the word of God. Well it does. We have already seen the consequences of having no hope. Look at Daniel 12 v 4. Knowledge shall be increased the old translators missed that one (science) shall be increased. When “at the time of the end”
The Bible is a book of fundamental certainties and we would encourage you to read it and understand what it is saying to you.
Don’t be afraid of a simple faith or be browbeaten by the brashness and certainty of science. Psalm 53 v 1 - 3
Gain the confidence that faith brings. Hebrews 11 v 1 - 3.
Believe that there is a creator who is concerned for this world and mankind. The earth will not be destroyed Ecclesiastes 1 v 4.
Don’t be fearful about war all that will stop when Jesus Christ returns as we have seen in Isaiah. It is certain.
Don’t worry about death. God promises that if you believe in Him and follow His ways you can live forever Romans 6 v 23
He also promises that there will be an accounting. Revelation 11 v 18
The lesson that Jesus describes in Luke 21 which applies just as much to the people of our day, to you and me, as it did to the people of Jesus' day. V 34 – 36.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Marriage is for Life
A summary of the Bible Hour presentation at the Christadelphian Hall, Blackpool Street, Burton-upon-Trent on Sunday 1st August 2010.
We live in an age where marriage is seen to be of no importance. The Bible however shows us why it was introduced, why it is relevant and what it represents.
Genesis 2 v 18 shows us that God made woman to be a helpmeet for man (Adam). The man and the woman would together form one unit. Whilst all of the animal kingdom was made from the dust of the ground, as was man, woman was made from part of man, so man and woman were part of each other, unlike the rest of the animal kingdom.
The Principle of Marriage and the Roles of Husband and Wife
God created man and woman to be two different parts of one unit – together they have different but important roles to carry out in forming that unit.
Following their sin in the Garden of Eden by heeding the words of the serpent and partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, God specified how they were to be punished in Genesis 3. Amongst those punishments, God declares to the man that: “in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread”. He would have to work in order to provide for himself and his family.
The woman was to be subject to her husband – “he shall rule over thee”. The role of the husband however is not to act as a dictator to his wife, but rather to take responsibility by guiding and caring for his wife and family.
Priorities of the woman include care of the children and those of the man include caring for his household – neither are exclusive to the one or the other, but they are primarily responsible for these roles. The scriptures show us however that the role of the wife is not to be a slave to her husband.
Proverbs 31 v 10-11 shows us that the husband and wife should be able to trust each other, and the relationship should be lifelong. Hebrews 13 v 4 also shows us that a sexual relationship should only be within marriage, and that God will judge those who go against this or commit adultery.
Marriage as a Type of Christ and His Followers
Ephesians 5 v 22–33 again reiterates the importance of the roles that husband and wife have in a marriage, and we see why the roles have been created as they are. It is an example which points forward to the time when Jesus returns to the earth.
The time will come when Jesus Christ will return to earth to set up God’s kingdom and he will be joined together with his faithful followers. Christ is often referred to as the bridegroom and his followers who are found to have been faithful are collectively referred to as his bride. Christ as the bridegroom cares for those who seek to follow his example, and the role of his followers (the bride) when he returns will be to assist him in setting up God’s kingdom on earth.
Revelation 19 talks about the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (the Lamb being another term often used in referring to Jesus Christ, as he was a type of the sacrificial lamb when he was crucified).
The marriage supper refers to the time when Jesus will be united with his faithful followers. If we want to be part of the “bride” that will be chosen to assist him in that time to come, we need to follow the example that he has set for us in the Bible. By doing this, a wonderful hope awaits us as we will have the opportunity to live and reign with Jesus when he establishes God’s kingdom here on earth.
We live in an age where marriage is seen to be of no importance. The Bible however shows us why it was introduced, why it is relevant and what it represents.
Genesis 2 v 18 shows us that God made woman to be a helpmeet for man (Adam). The man and the woman would together form one unit. Whilst all of the animal kingdom was made from the dust of the ground, as was man, woman was made from part of man, so man and woman were part of each other, unlike the rest of the animal kingdom.
The Principle of Marriage and the Roles of Husband and Wife
God created man and woman to be two different parts of one unit – together they have different but important roles to carry out in forming that unit.
Following their sin in the Garden of Eden by heeding the words of the serpent and partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, God specified how they were to be punished in Genesis 3. Amongst those punishments, God declares to the man that: “in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread”. He would have to work in order to provide for himself and his family.
The woman was to be subject to her husband – “he shall rule over thee”. The role of the husband however is not to act as a dictator to his wife, but rather to take responsibility by guiding and caring for his wife and family.
Priorities of the woman include care of the children and those of the man include caring for his household – neither are exclusive to the one or the other, but they are primarily responsible for these roles. The scriptures show us however that the role of the wife is not to be a slave to her husband.
Proverbs 31 v 10-11 shows us that the husband and wife should be able to trust each other, and the relationship should be lifelong. Hebrews 13 v 4 also shows us that a sexual relationship should only be within marriage, and that God will judge those who go against this or commit adultery.
Marriage as a Type of Christ and His Followers
Ephesians 5 v 22–33 again reiterates the importance of the roles that husband and wife have in a marriage, and we see why the roles have been created as they are. It is an example which points forward to the time when Jesus returns to the earth.
The time will come when Jesus Christ will return to earth to set up God’s kingdom and he will be joined together with his faithful followers. Christ is often referred to as the bridegroom and his followers who are found to have been faithful are collectively referred to as his bride. Christ as the bridegroom cares for those who seek to follow his example, and the role of his followers (the bride) when he returns will be to assist him in setting up God’s kingdom on earth.
Revelation 19 talks about the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (the Lamb being another term often used in referring to Jesus Christ, as he was a type of the sacrificial lamb when he was crucified).
The marriage supper refers to the time when Jesus will be united with his faithful followers. If we want to be part of the “bride” that will be chosen to assist him in that time to come, we need to follow the example that he has set for us in the Bible. By doing this, a wonderful hope awaits us as we will have the opportunity to live and reign with Jesus when he establishes God’s kingdom here on earth.
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