Introduction of my Book (Followers of The Way)
Acts 11:26 is the first time anyone was called a Christian. There were no
Christians when Jesus Christ was alive on the earth and there were none
before that, except in God’s foreknowledge. The Christian “movement”
officially began when Jesus handpicked 12 Disciples to follow him. When
he chose Peter and his brother Andrew, Jesus said to them, “Follow me
and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). He then called two other
brothers, who were fishermen as well: James and John. Then he selected
eight others, who all followed him and learned to do as he did. As the
12 began to follow him, so did others. What Jesus taught them and
showed them became known as “this way,” a term coined by Saul, who was
persecuting the followers of Jesus, as we see in Acts 9:2. Jesus proclaimed
that he was “the way” in John 14:6. After Saul’s conversion in 37 AD, 4 he
was teaching in a synagogue, where unbelievers spoke evil of “that way”
(Ac 19:9). Acts 19:23 says, “And the same time there arose no small stir
about that way.” In 22:4, Paul, recalling how he too had persecuted Jesus’
followers, referred to them as followers of “this way.” In 24:14, Paul says,
“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so
worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in
the law and in the prophets.” In 24:22, the “most noble Felix” referred to the believers as those of “that way,” which occurred in approximately 59 AD, 30 years after Jesus’ Ascension.
In 1 Corinthians 4:16–17, Paul says, Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. (Notice Paul’s confidence in his own integrity of being in Christ. He implored people to follow he himself). For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. (Notice where he taught besides the synagogues, in every church–they weren’t afraid of what he was going to say).
Paul adopted the way that he had formerly persecuted as “his way,”
which was in Christ. Here Paul beseeches the believers to be followers of
him and his ways and he sends Timothy, who knew his way better than
anyone else, to testify that Paul’s way was in Christ, as Christ would
have it.
The word “way” (hodos, 3598 in Strong’s; hereafter, simply the number
will be given) metaphorically5 means “a proceeding, a movement, which
denotes a code of conduct, a way or manner of thinking, feeling and
deciding.”6 Properly, it means a traveled road, a journey, route, or progress.
The word “Christian” is only used three times in the entire New Testament.
Even though the believers were first called Christians in Acts 11:26, around
45 AD, the term did not appear again until Acts 26:28, some 15 years
later, when Paul was questioning King Agrippa, who said, “Almost thou
persuadest me to be a Christian.”
Being a Christian—a follower of the way, the truth, and the life—Jesus Christ—is not just something you are, but something you become. It is a journey in life, conducting yourself in an exemplary manner in your actions, your thinking, your emotions, and your decisions. There is more to being a Christian than just confessing Jesus as your Lord or master and believing that God raised him from the dead. A lot more. But that is enough to get you eternal life. Eternal life is longer than any mortal, except for Jesus Christ, has ever known.
Have you ever thought about what you are going to do for eternity? Well, what you do then depends a lot on what you do now that you are born again, according to Romans 10:9–10. Th e Bible is probably the most read, yet most misunderstood book ever. Th ere are many reasons for this. I will endeavor to put forth several keys to understanding the Bible, which will hopefully give the reader a more accurate knowledge of the Word and Will of God.
4 E. W. Bullinger, The Companion Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1974, appendix 180, page 202
5 Figures of speech, like the metaphor, put life into the true, purposed meaning of things. They are used throughout the Bible. According to Bullinger, there are over 212 different kinds of figures of speech in the Bible alone. Figures tend to make things “more real and lively.” Bullinger believed they were the Holy Spirit’s, God’s, way of drawing attention to things that were of particular importance. Here in Acts, with eight usages of hodos, we can see beautifully how the metaphorical meaning is so much more descriptive. See Bullinger, The Companion Bible.
6 See Thayer’s.
Missing Persons
I recently became aware that my father-in-laws brother and his wife were missing or at least unaccounted for. It has been months since anyone has heard from them, not that they spoke a lot or even saw each other except possibly once a year. The guy was always blogging about the Bible and something called the tribulation and the rapture. I enjoyed having dialogue with him on facebook, not that we agreed on anything, but he was always a good sport. I once told him that I may not believe anything he says, but I will always defend his right to say it. Has anyone else noticed any of their Bible-toting friends missing?
I heard recently that there is some guy in Europe that is miraculously healing hundreds, if not thousands of people and that he is suppose to be on some kind of world tour. Have not heard when he is suppose to come here. A friend of mine in Spain said that he even made fire come down from the sky. Not sure if this amounts to anything but it sure would be interesting to meet them. Does anyone think it is possible that these two things are in anyway related?
Until next time,
Sr. Lobo
Jesus went to Hell and so will We
Entrance to Hell (Photo credit: joeltelling)
If you have read my book or Ecclesiastes you will know that there is no memory, or thinking or imagination or any brain activity at all, in the grave “wither thou goest!”
Ecc 9:10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. KJV
Ecc 9:10
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. NASU
Ecc 9:10
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. ESV
No matter what version of the Bible you choose to use, when we die we all go to the same place where there is no awareness that we are even dead. Jesus Christ tasted death just like we will, with one exception: we will rot away.
As you can see, the Hebrew word sheol is used in 2 of the above 3 versions. Sheol occurs 67 times in the OT in the NASU version. Of those 67, the same word in the KJV is translated hell. Hell and the grave are one and the same. You can believe anything you want to, but his is what the Word of God says.
King David says this about that in
Ps 16:10: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. KJV
Ps 16:10
For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. NASU
David knew that at the Awakening of the Just, he would get up from the grave. He also knew that God would not allow Jesus (thine Holy One) to rot away, as he did and we will.
Hades is the NT equivalent of sheol, the grave. It is Strong’s number 86 and is used 10 times. It is translated as hell in the KJV and kept as Hades in the NASU. Here is the same verse from Psalms quoted in the book of Acts:
Ac 2:27
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. KJV
Ac 2:27
BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. NASU
Here you can see how Hades, Sheol and Hell are used interchangeably. These words have nothing to do with the Lake of Fire, which was used figuratively of the dump burning outside of Jerusalem. That is an altogether different subject, which I have already covered in a different blog post.
In the absence of the Rapture, we are all going to hell! Ha! Just like Jesus did!
God bless,
P.S. By the way, you can get my book at http://www.fredswolfe.com now!
Related articles
- The Question of Hell? (fredswolfe.wordpress.com)
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign; Do this, don’t do that, Can’t you read the Signs?
English: An etching by Jan Luyken illustrating Luke 17:34 in the Bowyer Bible, Bolton, England. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Christians everywhere will tell you about all the current signs of Christ’s return, but do not believe a word they say. There are no signs concerning what is called the Rapture, the Gathering Together, episunagoge, of the Church of God. The reason there are no signs is because the time in which we now live was unknown to everyone who wrote anything in the Bible prior to Saul of Tarsus, A.D. 37-40.
For those of you who have never read the New Testament or are not real familiar with it, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell about the events of the Second Coming of Christ to the earth, which is not the Rapture of the Church. The Rapture occurs 7 years prior to the events you read about there. The mindset of the gospel writers and that of Jesus Christ was that Christ was going to return within 7 years after he ascended into Heaven.
The Apostle John, who wrote the gospel of John, also wrote the book of Revelation and fully expected the things recorded in that book to occur during the first seven years after Jesus’ ascension. But, they did not. Jesus even told some of his disciples that they would not die until they saw the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great glory; yet they did die and no one has seen that yet.
Christians will tell you that Jesus knew everything God knew while he was here the first time but this line of thought is obviously in error. When that Florida preacher was talking about Christ’s return Christians were quick to start quoting Mk 13:32, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” KJV On one hand they says he knows everything, on the other they say he doesn’t. All that matters is what the Bible really says.
The Rapture of the “saved” will occur with no signs at all; you will not know when to prepare yourselves for it. Do not wait for what is recorded in the gospels or you will wish you had not. God bless!
See more in my new book http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/AdvancedSearch/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=rightly+dividing+the+word+of+truth
The Mystery Revealed (a solved mystery is no longer)
A nineteenth century picture of Paul of Tarsus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray (what has become known as the Lord’s Prayer), he prayed for God’s kingdom to come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. THIS PRAYER HAS YET TO BE ANSWERED! When Jesus prayed this prayer he did not know about the Sacred Secret which God kept hidden from everyone from the foundation of the world. This secret was first revealed to the Apostle Paul.
Since then, very few people have taken notice of it, especially The Church. God kept it a secret for over 4,000 years and virtually no one in the church today can tell you what it was, let alone it’s significance. Practically everything being taught today about the Kingdom of God as it relates to the church of the Body of Christ is FALSE, DEVILISH and COUNTERFEIT. And sickening, to everyone who knows and understands the Secret of Romans 16:25,26; Eph 3:1-9 and Col 1:25-29.
The devil has had about 2,000 years to eradicate its knowledge And has done a marvelous job. My son recommended I read Tony Evan’s book, The Kingdom Man. The fact that he wanted me to read it made me spiritually sick to my stomach. No one in the Administration of Grace is a kingdom anything. Look up kingdom of God in the NT and you will see the word “UNTO” used in many of the passages. The Kingdom of God and of Christ is in the FUTURE, not now! Jesus is not now ruling as King of kings! If he is, he is certainly not doing a very good job! Apostle Frederick Price said last Sunday, “if God Almighty is controlling the world, as most Christians think he is, I don’t want to go to Heaven!” If what we see in the world today is a reflection of God’s way of doing things, then what could there possibly be to look forward to? This is not the Kingdom of God! No principles of that kingdom are applicable today!
Christians today are just as thick-headed as Jews were in the wilderness. What is it going to take to wake you up?
One of the greatest mistranslations of most Bible translators has been the Greek word musterion. The problem is it was not translated at all, it was merely transliterated into a similar English word. This word is used throughout the Church Epistles of Paul given by revelation from Jesus himself. These Church Epistles serve as the new doctrine for correct believing for the church today.
The transliteration of musterion into mystery was purely satanic, in that it has lead believers to understand that there are some things concerning God that are just an un-understandable mystery. Nothing could be further from the truth. The actual translation of this word is “secret.” It does not regard a secret that any man kept, but one which God kept from the foundation of the world. You and I both know, that a secret between 2 people is one of the hardest things to keep. Deep down inside we are just dying to tell someone else or in some cases, we forget it is a secret over time, and it inadvertently slips out.
Since this was a secret that God kept, it is a Sacred Secret. No one else, including God’s only Son knew about it. Jesus was not told the secret until he had ascended into Heaven. Soon after he was told this secret, he chose a man named Saul who was a very religious Jew to reveal it to. Saul was so religious he was legally killing followers of Jesus Christ because he believed they were heretics. He was present at the stoning to death of Stephen; he gave the consent for it to be done.
Romans is the first Doctrinal Epistle written directly to believers in Jesus Christ of this Age. In Ro 16:25-26 it says, “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery (the secret) which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; NASU
Here we see that this sacred secret was first revealed to Paul for our obedience of true faith and became known as his gospel. 2of the most important words used in his letters the the Church are the words “according to.” When you read these words pay close attention because our lives are to be patterned accordingly. You will see that Paul’s gospel is actually the true gospel of our Lord Jesus.
I will leave you with further evidence of this secret revealed from the 2nd Doctrinal Epistle of Ephesians:
Eph 3:2-9
if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery (secret,) as I wrote before in brief.
4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery (secret) of Christ,
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the Sacred Secret which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; NASU
We are now living during this administration of God, just as we are living during the Obama administration. One being spiritual in nature and the other physically. There is nothing more important in the Word of God to understand for the believer than that the Epistles of Paul were written according to revelation from Jesus Christ, making them our supreme guide for faith and practice. There are no mysteries in the Bible at all, just misunderstandings. God bless.
See more like this in my new book http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/AdvancedSearch/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=rightly+dividing+the+word+of+truth
Does Truth Matter?
Many of my Christian friends look at my Tweets on Twitter and must think I am out of my mind when it comes the Christian Doctrine. Studying the 4 gospels for doctrine is no different than studying the 5 books of Moses, as they are all a part of the old covenant, to Israel. Yes, we can learn alot from that study, but nothing doctrinally for us.
What I espouse in my book is nothing new even though it sounds foreign to your ears. Romans was the first doctrinal epistle written to the Church of God; Ephesians was the second and Thessalonians was the last since it culminates in the Rapture of that church. Paul’s epistles are as relative today as they were in his day. They are not historical writings; they were given to Paul by our Lord Jesus for the purpose of how Christians are…
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E.W. Bullinger, 1837-1913
E. W. Bullinger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many of my Christian friends look at my Tweets on Twitter and must think I am out of my mind when it comes the Christian Doctrine. Studying the 4 gospels for doctrine is no different than studying the 5 books of Moses, as they are all a part of the old covenant, to Israel. Yes, we can learn alot from that study, but nothing doctrinally for us.
What I espouse in my book is nothing new even though it sounds foreign to your ears. Romans was the first doctrinal epistle written to the Church of God; Ephesians was the second and Thessalonians was the last since it culminates in the Rapture of that church. Paul’s epistles are as relative today as they were in his day. They are not historical writings; they were given to Paul by our Lord Jesus for the purpose of how Christians are to correctly believe.
Corinthians is the first Reproof epistle, Philippians is the 2nd. Galatians and Colossians are epistles of Correction. As Timothy was instructed by Paul all the Scripture he wrote is either for Doctrine, Reproof and Correction. I know, that just too simple to be believable, but it is the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus, whether you believe it or not.
As Paul said in his Reproof epistle, 1Co 14:38, “if any one be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” Being Ignorant is a choice Chrisians make every day. They laugh at practically everything that comes out of my mind and onto this medium, but one day we will all have to give an account of our stewardship of the secrets of God. It will not be a pleasant day for those of you who choose Ignorance and Pride and Haughtiness instead of the revelation God kept hidden until he revealed to the apostle Paul by way of the ascended Christ.
BUT, DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. Google E.W. Bullinger and just take a look at all the titles he produced in his lifetime. You will discover that he believed practically everything I believe about the Word of God. You can also look at http://www.TruthorTradition.com.
You will discover many significant things, but the purpose of this writing is to address the Holy Spirit, God and His gift to us, called holy spirit. The difference between the 2 is the article “the.” The article presence or absence of the article “the” in the Greek Manuscripts determines which one the apostle Paul is talking about. One is the Giver and the other is His gift. You will see that this is one of Bullinger’s titles.
Yes you can Ignore everything I say hear just like you have ignored everything I have said heretofore, like Jeremiah and all the other Prophets were ignored by Israel. My advice to all you nay and gainsayers is, “Wake up and smell the coffee!”
Happy Trails.
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