Jesus

The Infantilization of the Modern Church

The Infantilization of the Modern Church

Modern evangelical churches have spent the last twenty years trying very hard to prove something. Not that the gospel is powerful. Not that the Word of God is sufficient.

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Posted by petra1000 in Apologetics, Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching, Church
Heb 7:3 – Melchizedek, a Type of the Son of God

Heb 7:3 – Melchizedek, a Type of the Son of God

Problem: “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually” (Hebrews 7:3)

There are some who identify Melchizedek as the pre-incarnate Christ. That is, they believe that Christ Himself appeared to Abraham in Genesis 14. This seems to be based primarily on a misunderstanding of the verse cited above (Heb. 7:3).

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
Heb 4:15 – God Cannot be Tempted…But Jesus Was?

Heb 4:15 – God Cannot be Tempted…But Jesus Was?

Problem: According to Scripture, Jesus was Deity in the flesh (John 1:1-5,14; 20:28). He was not sired by man; He was not conceived naturally by woman (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). Rather, Jesus came from heaven (John 3:13; 6:38), proved His “mighty God” Messiahship (Isaiah 9:6) through a variety of verified miracles (John 20:30-31; cf. Lyons and Butt, 2006), accepted worship (Matthew 14:33; John 9:38), and claimed a unity with God the Father that even His enemies understood was a profession of Deity (John 10:30,33). Some, however, question the Bible’s consistency of Jesus being God. The argument goes something like this (cf. Wells, 2010): The Bible declares that Satan tempted Jesus (Matthew 4:1), and that Jesus was “in all points tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). Yet, the Bible also declares that “God cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1:13). Therefore, the Bible (allegedly) contradicts itself regarding the nature of Jesus. How could He be God, if God cannot be tempted?

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
Heb 1:8 – Is the Son addressed as “God”?

Heb 1:8 – Is the Son addressed as “God”?

Heb. 1:8-12—“But as to the Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and a sceptre of
uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated
lawlessness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy companions.
And, Thou in the beginning, Lord, hast founded the earth, and works of thy hands are the
heavens. They shall perish, but thou continuest still; and they all shall grow old as a garment, and as
a covering shalt thou roll them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the Same, and thy years
shall not fail.”

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
10 Bible Verses That Prove Jesus Is God

10 Bible Verses That Prove Jesus Is God

There’s a quiet comfort in knowing who Jesus truly is. Some say He was just a good man. Others, a prophet. A wise teacher. But when we open the Bible and take a closer look and we REALLY look; it tells a different story. A deeper one. One that’s both astonishing and incredibly personal: Jesus isn’t just someone who talked about God. He is God.

That truth isn’t tucked away in just one verse or one chapter. It’s woven through the entire Bible; from the opening lines of Genesis to the final words in Revelation. It’s in the words Jesus spoke, the miracles He performed, the way others responded to Him, and the titles He accepted. Over and over again, Scripture lifts the veil and reveals His divine nature.

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
Titus 2:13 – Is Jesus Christ Identified as “The Great God”?

Titus 2:13 – Is Jesus Christ Identified as “The Great God”?

“Looking for the blessed hope,  and the glorious appearing of the great Godand our Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus  2:13 KJV)

Problem: Who is this glorious One who is going to appear? The glorious One who is going to appear is described as “the GREAT GOD.” When He comes again, His deity will be quite obvious. And who is this GREAT GOD? He is further described as our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the great God who shall someday appear.  What a clear affirmation of the deity of Christ!

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
The Faith of the Evolutionist

The Faith of the Evolutionist

Many people think that faith is strictly a religious matter and concerns unprovable issues such as angels, heaven and, of course, belief in the creation story. They further feel that belief in evolution is more reasonable, since it is based upon hard and proven facts. But is this true?

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching, Creation, Evolution
Return To Your First Love

Return To Your First Love

You have abandoned the love you had at first. (Revelation 2:4)

We will always remember that best and brightest of hours when we first saw the Lord, lost our burden, received the gift of grace, rejoiced in full salvation, and went on our way in peace. It was springtime in the soul; the winter was past; the mutterings of Sinai’s thunders were hushed; the flashings of its lightnings were no more perceived; God was beheld as reconciled; the law threatened no vengeance, and justice demanded no punishment.

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Study, Bible Teaching
I Have Redeemed You

I Have Redeemed You

“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (Is 44:22)

Pay attention to THE INSTRUCTIVE PICTURE: Our sins are like a cloud. As clouds appear in many shapes and shades, so do our transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun and darken the landscape below, so do our sins hide from us the light of Jehovah’s face and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earthborn things and arise from the miry places of our lives; and when they collect and their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and tempest. Sadly, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of destruction. How can it be fair weather when the dark clouds of sin remain within our souls?

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
The First Will Be Last

The First Will Be Last

“So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:28-30)

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
Col 3:1 – In What Way was God Greater than Jesus?

Col 3:1 – In What Way was God Greater than Jesus?

Problem: According to the apostle John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14, emp. added). Unquestionably, this Word (God), Whom John claims became flesh, was Jesus Christ (1:17). This same apostle recorded other statements in his account of the Gospel that convey the same basic truth. He wrote how, on one occasion, Jesus told a group of hostile Jews, “I and My Father are one” (10:30). Later, he recorded how Jesus responded to Philip’s request to see God by saying, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9). He even told about how Jesus accepted worship from a blind man whom He had healed (9:38; cf. Matthew 8:2). And, since only God is to be worshipped (Matthew 4:10), the implication is that Jesus believed He was God (cf. John 1:29,41,49; 20:28; Mark 14:62).

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
The Branch

The Branch

“Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD.  It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne.” Zechariah 6:12,13

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching
Col 1:18 – Christ – the Firstfruits

Col 1:18 – Christ – the Firstfruits

Problem: In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote at length concerning the resurrection of the dead, because some of the Christians in Corinth taught “that there is no resurrection of the dead” (vs. 12). As one of his proofs for the Christian’s eventual resurrection, Paul pointed to the fact of the resurrection of Christ, and showed that the two stand or fall together, saying, “if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (vss. 16-17)! After hypothetically arguing from the absurd in an attempt to get the Corinthian Christians to see that their stance on the final resurrection completely undermined Christianity, Paul proceeded to demonstrate that Christ had risen, and thus made the resurrection of the dead inevitable. It is in this section of scripture that some find a difficulty. Beginning with verse 20, Paul wrote:

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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching